As Luck Would Have It
A/N: Ok, sorry this was so long in coming. When I got my computer back it was missing EVERYTHING—and I mean EVERYTHING—that had been on it before. I lost a lot. So here I go.
Chapter Sixteen: On the Road Again (credit to Feonyx for the title)
"Let me get this straight," Ivan said as they left Bilibin for the second time. "We're going to go talk to some trees?"
"Not quite," Isaac said, a mischievous grin on his face.
"Then, what exactly are we doing?"
"We're going to talk to one particular tree. As far as I know, there only is one talking tree."
"It's a magical forest, in a way," Mia said, smiling and letting her thoughts drift to the past. "The trees are sort of guardians of the forest. I think they're angry because YAH!"
"Because of 'yah'?" Garet asked skeptically, then realized Mia was pointing at something and followed the direction of her finger. "YAH!"
"There is an echo out here," Zoe stated decisively, heaving her longsword from its sheath and thinking she might prefer a staff as she brought it up to meet the onrushing Rat Soldiers. "I just want to know where these oversized vermin got their armor."
"I'll give you a slight hint," Garet said as one of them charged him. "It isn't rat-made."
"That is disgusting, Garet!" Mia cried, whacking one of the Rat Soldiers on the head with her new mace. "Hey, I like this weapon!"
"Can we concentrate on theeeeeEEEEYAA!" Isaac yelped as one of the Rat Soldiers crashed into him, sending him flying several feet.
"Theeya. Gotcha," Garet said sarcastically, slicing one of the Rat Soldiers in two. "One down. Four to go. This is not my day, is it?"
"Must not be."
Ivan, who had been very quiet all this time, suddenly raised a hand and stared down the Rat Solders defiantly. "Wind Seer's Plasma!" he yelled. What Garet described to himself as 'advanced-scale voltage' descended from the sky, zapping three of the Rat Soldiers into nonexistence.
"Wow. Nice trick, Ivan," Zoe said with a grin. The final Rat Soldier charged at her. Feeling as though it were hopeless, she held up her sword and closed her eyes. But the Rat Soldier ran right on past her, headed for Ivan.
"Ivan, duck!" Garet yelled, and Ivan complied with the speed of a Jupiter Adept. The Rat Soldier, in the middle of a flying leap, couldn't stop itself, and flew into impalement on Isaac's sword.
"Nicer trick," Ivan conceded with a mocking bow.
"Stop it you," Isaac said menacingly, a wicked grin betraying his sinister tone. "Unless you want a pool of quicksand to suddenly appear beneath your feet?"
"Quicksand?! Mercy!" Ivan pleaded jokingly, and the other laughed. Well, all of them except Garet laughed. He seemed to be in a state of suspension.
"Garet?" Mia asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Oh Mars boy?" she went on in a singsong voice. "Would you like to be wet or frosty?"
"What? Wet? Frosty? Is it snowing?" Garet asked suddenly, snapped out of whatever trance he had been in.
"Come on, marshmallow-head," Ivan said with a grin. "We have to go talk to some trees."
"I'm not a marshmallow-head!"
"Yes you are. A strawberry-flavored one."
"I AM NOT A MARSHMALLOW OF ANY FLAVOR ON THIS SIDE OF MOUNT ALEPH!" Garet yelled, making his considerably shorter hair stand on end and clenching his hands into fists. Ivan ignored this, however, pleased that he had found a means of annoyance.
"Oh really? Are you saying that, if we were to go to the other side of Mount Aleph, you would become a marshmallow? Or that you are a marshmallow, but not one of any flavor FOUND on this side of Mount Aleph? And if that's true, what flavor are you? If we were to stand on the border between this and the other side of Mount Aleph, would you be half a marshmallow? And doesn't your use of fire brown the edges a bit sometimes?" Ivan finished with a satisfied smirk.
Garet stared, mouth open in shock, for the first time in his life stunned speechless. Needless to say, the Adepts readily welcomed the change.
***************
"Well here we are," Zoe said. The wooden construct that was Bilibin Barricade loomed before them. It did look rather poorly made, but it was obviously not easy to knock down.
"There's a door. We can just go through that way," Isaac said confidently, walking up to it and pushing. When the door didn't open, he pushed harder. When the door still didn't open, he considered ramming it, but decided it wasn't worth the effort."
"The hinges," Ivan observed, "are on our side of the door. That means if we want to open the door, we should pull it." Stepping around Isaac, Ivan took hold of the doorknob and pulled hard. The door didn't budge."
"Or not," Garet said with a snicker.
"Then the door is locked, and there is no way through," Ivan surmised, sitting on a rock near the gate.
"There's a sign," Mia said, standing in front of a large wooden message board. "It says 'this area is off limits to all those without a permit. Signed Lord McCoy.' Honestly. A permit. That man isn't even a lord, he's a mayor, and he has a terrible accent at that."
"Yes but he has guards that call him lord," Isaac pointed out, dropping to the vacant rock next to Ivan.
"You sure there's no way around this barrier?" Garet asked, stepping closer to study it. "It sure looks unstable. Maybe we can Move something?"
"The door does not move," Ivan muttered.
"I meant Move as in using Psynergy. This looks loose enough," Garet mused, pointing his hand at what appeared to be a large wooden box. "Move!" The box and Garet glowed the multiple colors of Psynergy, and slowly the box moved to the side.
"Is it me, or did Mars boy just have an idea?" Mia asked, half-shocked and half-sarcastic.
"He gave the thing an order," Zoe said with a shrug. "It's what he does. I think it's the only way his brain can function?"
"What brain?"
"Point."
Standing, Isaac led the adepts through the opening and to the other side of the barricade. They found themselves staring at three trees, relatively small ones and almost identical replicas of the tree just inside Bilibin.
Ivan stepped up to one and used Mind Read. "Tree-people," he said evenly. "Or, you know, people-trees. It really doesn't matter which way you say it. Trees that were once people. This one says that she'll be swept out to sea if we don't rescue her. Tell me, who is 'she'?"
"Probably that tree out on the rock," Zoe said, pointing to where the third tree balanced precariously on a stone in the water. "But we can't step into that rushing current."
"Garet already gave us the solution," Isaac said, wading into the shallow water near the edge and holding out a hand. "Move." The tree was pulled into the shallows, where the current swirled a bit and pulled it in until it was stuck in the muddy bottom.
"Garet, solving two of our problems in one day. Now that's just a bit scary." Mia shook her head. "Almost makes you think he has a brain."
"What brain?" Garet asked, not having heard Mia completely because he was studying the barricade again.
"Exactly," Isaac said, and everyone except Garet laughed. "Let's go. Kolima Forest can't be that far away now."
***************
"I take it back," Isaac said when they reached a fork half an hour later. Well, it wasn't technically a fork, because they did not follow a road. But there was an obvious choice of left or right.
"I think we should go right to get to Kolima," Garet said, feeling a bit proud of his finding their way through the barricade earlier.
"Then we go left," Zoe put in, and the others nodded. "Garet, you have the sense of direction of a worm."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"No, it was not."
"Why are you being mean to me?"
"I don't like trees."
"I'm not a tree. Or a marshmallow," he added, cutting Ivan off before he could say the words.
They continued left, which took them northeast and towards a forest made up of huge, thick trees. With one final glance back the way they had come, Garet was the first to step inside. The others followed quickly, though Ivan was tempted to change his mind. He liked trees even less than Zoe did, being a Jupiter Adept.
Upon entering the forest, Ivan got a good look around and stared, puzzled.
"What's the matter Ivan?" Garet asked.
"There's sparkly stuff on the ground," he said in a puzzled voice.
"What is it?" Zoe asked him.
"You think I know?"
"Well I can always try." She was about to say more, but there was a sudden flash, and strong waves of energy began pelting the adepts.
"Aaah! What's happening!?" Garet cried.
"My mind!" Ivan yelled, bringing his hands to his head. "Someone is attacking my—" He found he could not continue to speak.
"I…I can't…I can't even stand up!" Mia said weakly, and on cue all five of the Adepts collapsed, unable to move. The clearing in which they were standing filled with a violet light, and great shining balls of power began to fall from above.
"What is that?" Zoe asked softly. Even talking was hard after whatever had just happened.
"It's sparkling," Ivan whispered. "Could this be what turned those people into…" Realizing the implications of his thoughts, Ivan left the words unsaid. But the others got the point. "We've got to get out of here!"
"We can't even move," Isaac mumbled. "Venus knows I'm trying. And if that stuff touches us…"
"We turn into trees," Mia finished sadly.
"Not that Isaac would care," Garet muttered under his breath. He closed his eyes to wait for his fate.
None of the adepts saw as the glittering balls descended upon them. Nor did they see that they were protected by strange shields of power. And only Ivan saw that Zoe's shield was yellow while all the others' were blue.
When the light faded, the adepts opened their eyes.
"We're not trees," Zoe said in amazement.
"A barrier of some sort saved us," Ivan said. "I think I know what it was. It was our Psynergy." He decided not to mention Zoe's difference. She already had enough problems, with no memory.
Garet suddenly jumped to his feet. "Ivan's insane. I didn't use any Psynergy!" Then he looked down at himself. He jumped a couple of times and waved his arms around. "Hey! I can move now! Look!"
"People with regular capacity intelligence would have noticed that first," Mia said, standing as well and pulling Zoe to her feet. Together they helped Isaac up. Ivan grumbled and stood himself.
"Control," Zoe said suddenly.
"What?" Isaac asked. "Control?"
"We can control those barriers Ivan's talking about, I think. I mean, it is Psynergy."
"We don't know that it's Psynergy though," Garet said. "I already told you I didn't use any."
"Maybe it's an automatic reaction," Mia said, catching on. "Like…like when you hear a loud noise, you automatically jump. It happens only when you need it to happen."
"Like my Shining Strike," Ivan put in, a wide grin on his face.
"Exactly," Zoe said. "But unlike that, I think we can control this. Somehow." Before she could continue, the clearing was lit with the eerie light again, and glitter began falling from above. "I always get cut off by these things."
"It's happening again," Ivan said. "Let's see if we can stop it ourselves this time." They watched as their blue shields appeared and little glowing balls bounced off them like hail off the roof of a house.
"Zoe, yours is different," Garet commented. Zoe said nothing. She too was puzzled about this, but attributed it to not quite being able to control any of her Psynergy.
"Why don't they turn into trees?!" a voice boomed.
"I think we've found our talking buddies," Ivan mused.
"Who are they?" asked a more feminine and quieter voice. "What people are these, who are immune to Tret's glamour? Have they come to wreak more havoc in our forest?"
"What people are we," Ivan mocked. "Trees don't seem to have much sense. But maybe I'm just biased against Venus-type things."
"The boy who sends the wind is foolish and careless with his thoughts," the female voice continued, and Ivan paled. "Nothing you do will be enough to save the people of Kolima."
"These intruders have earned their fate," roared the deep voice again. "Kolima took their axes to me, and now I shall take mine to them!"
"We are dying," the female voice said wistfully. "And Kolima Forest will die with us. But the people of Kolima will die as well."
"This is true, Laurel," said the booming voice, which the Adepts guessed must belong to the one called Tret.
"Tret's once-kind heart has been torn in two as he dies. His evil side turned the people of Kolima into trees. The kind Tret is forever gone."
"The kindly heart invites destruction!" Tret hollered. "I need no kindness."
"Everyone needs kindness," Mia muttered to herself.
"Foolish girl. You will pay for that!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
"Mia, you're talking to trees," Isaac mumbled to her.
"So do you."
"You must reawaken Tret's kind self," Laurel said mournfully, "or we all will perish."
"Humans cannot be trusted!" boomed Tret angrily. "When I die I shall take the forest with me!" Slowly the light faded and the clearing returned to normal.
"There has to be something we can do," Zoe said. "We can't let the people of Kolima die."
"There is something we can do," Isaac said stoically. "We can head deep into the forest and, pardoning the pun, get to the root of the problem."
"Alright," the others answered. Isaac nodded and headed with very final-feeling steps into the depths of Kolima Forest.
***************
Vil: All done! Are you happy?
Kaede: You'd better be. This is probably the longest chapter in here. Maybe. Actually I'm not sure.
Vil: Neither am I. Now, I need somewhere close to 90 reviews before I post again! And chapter seventeen is gonna be a doozy.