The Golden Sun One-Shot Panoply

By: *sighs* This is the last time:

Currently: Triad Orion, Midnight C, Akiko, Vilya, Feonyx, Shiro Amayagi, Kadevi chan, Griffinkhan, Jupiter Sprite, Azusasan, Kyarorain, Yoshimi Takahashi, Dragon Empress, Alexditto.

To be added in near future: Vyctori

Yet to be Sent to my Inbox: Elena, Village Idiot, Omniflyer (there may be others here).

And will the owner of the email riddle_me_that_batman@hotmail.com please re-send their submission as an attachment and put their author name in there so I know who you are. Thanks!!

And also thousands upon thousands of thanks to all the reviewers!

Now…this story is a bit…well, it's in the usual Alexditto style. And the thing at the end is very funny, too. So get to reading!

*****

Special story for the One Shot Panoply

Woe is I

Adventures in literature

By Alexditto

This is so boring. Jenna rolled her eyes while looking at the sky. Giant, puffy white clouds rolled by, bumping into other clouds and forming shapes that reminded Jenna of things she was not doing. That one's a phoenix; that one looks like a campfire; a giant flame dragon; Garet's head maybe? This is so boring. She shifted her position on the grass, rolling over on her side. She saw a miniscule black ant, crawling between the tall leaves of grass, weaving in and out between blades. Not seeming to know where it was going, it wandered close to Jenna's outstretched hand. What am I accomplishing? Absolutely nothing. I'm now hours closer to my death. Yet I have nothing to show of it. But do I ever have anything to show of my life? The ability to make something burst into flame. Wow. Big deal. The ability to make larger somethings burst into flame.  She snickered to herself, then continued to watch the ant as it came across others of its kind. They briefly touched, examining each other with their tiny feelers. They continued on their separate ways. I wonder if I can set it on fire.... She pushed the thought out of her head. 

Jenna lifted herself off the ground and attempted to brush the grass off her scarlet cloak. There must be something to do somewhere around here.

She slowly made up her mind to walk toward her house, hoping that something would happen on the way. Perhaps a giant dragon will attack me, or try to destroy the town. At least it would give me something to do. She laughed quietly, thinking of the hundreds of dragons she had defeated on her quest. I could take 'em.

A gust of wind tousled her hair. Realizing her stupid thoughts, she became very annoyed with herself. Jenna was once again wasting a day in a spectacular fashion. With no chores to do, no Psyenergy to practice, and no feasts coming up, she had decided to eat some breakfast, and go outside to enjoy the weather.

The weather wasn't as entertaining as it used to be.

She crossed one of the bridges that spanned the river, and walked down the dirt brown stairs that had been carved into the small cliffs years ago, trampled and compacted by the feet of mice and men.

Approaching her house, she viewed Felix lying on the ground upside-down. His brown hair was spread out over the dirt, and he was only wearing his running shirt today. He was reading a tiny book with a picture of a mouse on it. The juxtaposition making him look awkward, Jenna almost laughed before remembering her annoyance.

"Felix, let's do something. How about cards?"

"Not now, Jenna. Got to finish Mossflower before the next book comes out." Felix replied without looking up. He flipped the page and continued to read, despite his sister's whining.

"But Felix! It is such a nice day out! Come on, don't you want to... oh, never mind." Jenna stormed off. Felix looked up briefly and shrugged. Jenna could be annoying sometimes.

The Mars adept walked up another flight of stairs, crossed back over the river, and climbed once more, finally reaching Isaac's house, the lush, bright green grass making a soft crunching noise under her feet. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

She burst into the room, and seeing Isaac sitting at the small wooden table in the middle of the room, she called out. "Isaac! Come on, let's go fishing!"

Isaac, his bright azure eyes glued to the page, pointed. Jenna followed his direction to a sign posted on the wall, on which was printed legibly in block letters: "Can't do anything. Must read Lord of the Rings for the thirty-fourth time before watching movie."

Jenna sighed and shook her head. "Lost cause," she said to herself. She walked back out the door, into the bright sunlight. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. After a few seconds of squinting, she decided to visit the Psyenergy stone. There were bound to be people there. She ran, past her house, past the shops and the in. From the upper level of the city, she spotted Picard and Mia, both sitting on the Psyenergy stone. They might be doing something. As she approached, she overheard their conversation.

"My dear Othello!" Mia cried, lifting the arm not holding a stack of papers into the air and looking at Picard.

"It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high and goose again as low--" Picard stopped abruptly, checking his script.

"It's 'duck again as low,' not goose." Mia scowled at him as he blushed.

"Sorry Mia. Let's start that quote again."

"You know, Isaac isn't going to go for the part where you have kiss me. I'm not really thrilled about it either." Mia said, her pale skin turning a rosy hue.

Picard blushed as well, and they both started laughing hysterically, trying not to fall of the oddly shaped stone.

"Shakespeare? Yeech!" Jenna stormed off, disgusted. Why must they always pick the days that I want to do something for practicing their play? she asked herself. Well, looks like I'm left with the midgets or the oaf.

Jenna knew that she'd find Ivan and Sheba together on some tall hill, probably whipping up windstorms. She raised her hand above her head as a particularly strong gust blew past. "From the east," she concluded. She squeezed past some trees and edged across a particularly thin ledge, finally reaching a clearing with a tall hill in the middle. On top were Ivan and Sheba. She raced up the hill, reaching the top only to find both wind adepts reading the same book. "Gone with the wind?" Every few minutes, both adepts would laugh at the exact same time, both turning the page with such synchronicity that Jenna knew the both must be linked up. She stamped her foot in frustration. Neither wind adept seemed to notice, their eyes looking glazed.

Jenna slid down the mountain, burning the blades of grass under her feet in her frustration. She almost toppled over Garet, who was sitting at the base of the hill.

She regained her composure swiftly. "Garet, sweetie, let's go off somewhere... romantic."

"Not now, Jenna. I'm trying to finish 'Pride and Prejudice.' It is really good."

"Garet…"

"I mean, Mr. Darcy is about to get married—"

"GARET! COME WITH ME NOW!" Jenna yelled, rage building.

"Oh man, do I have to?" He looked up at her with pleading eyes.

But Jenna had snapped. Her eyes burned a brilliant red as she shot off pyroclasm after pyroclasm, burning the grass on the side of the hill to a brown crisp. Poor Garet's hair, as well as Mr. Darcy, were burnt into a tiny pile of ash. Jenna stormed away, as the now bald Garet tried to figure out where he could get another copy of the book. "Maybe Kraden will have one."

Jenna stormed off into the surrounding forest, mad at everyone for doing stuff without her, mad at Garet for wanting to read the book rather than be with her, and finally, mad at books in general.

"It's so stupid! They're just sitting there, reading their book, getting nothing done!" she shouted into the forest. "It isn't fair," she said helplessly. She finally found one of the bigger trees in the forest, and sat down between its roots. The ground around the tree was covered with moss, and tiny mushrooms had started to grow in the older parts of the bark. From here, the sky was almost invisible, but she could tell that it was going to rain. Oh well, she thought. At least the trees will provide some shelter.

It began to drizzle, and the forest grew dark with the oncoming storm. The tiny drops of water fell on the leaves above her, producing soothing sounds. Jenna fell into a light sleep under the tree.

Suddenly, she heard a crackling noise. It was coming from behind her. "Who's there?" she called.

The rustling continued. Jenna jumped up, and realized she had left her staff at home. I'll just have to fight fire with fire. She braced herself, not sure why any sort of monster would be in the woods around Vale.

Finally, something pulled itself out of the bush. "By Mars! What is that?"

A book, ragged and torn at the edges had slowly pulled itself out of the shrub, by what means Jenna had no idea. Its cover was blood red, embossed in gold that had long ago faded. The pages squeezed between the covers were yellow with age, and splotched with dirt. It pathetically attempted to open itself, but failed and fell shut. It cried out in a weak, high-pitched voice, and tiny scream that rang in Jenna's ears.

The rain grew heavier.

Giant drops of water splashed into Jenna's face as she ran. She knew not why she ran, nor where to. But as did, the forest got darker, the trees thinner and thinner until they finally stopped appearing. She thought to look back, and see what was behind her, but her mind screamed at her not to. She was running into blackness and nothing, when suddenly, a figure appeared to her left. His blue cape and dull rust red hair billowed in the howling wind, but he was not running. Jenna continued to sprint, trying to get away from the strange man, but she seemingly got nowhere.

He began to laugh. "Jenna, Jenna. When will you learn?" He pointed strait ahead, as to direct her attention. Jenna looked forward, still running, and saw her friends, all laughing, together in a group. "Your friends love being with you, but you can't expect them to always do what you want. Make your own entertainment!"

"I... I just wanted to be with my friends!" Jenna slowed.

"I think you could do with some alone time once and a while. And give your friends a break. They love you beyond all measure, but they could use some time without you." The man in a blue cape began to grow faint. Jenna rubbed her eyes.

"Where are you going? I still don't know who you are!" She yelled at him.

He slowly disappeared into the blackness. Jenna stopped running, and looked behind her. "What the…"

Her djinn were running after her, all carrying little books.

"Hey Jenna!" 

"Are you alright?"

"Nice dream!"

"Dream?" Jenna asked, looking confused.

"Well, duh!" Reflux responded. "What did you think it was?"

At that Jenna woke with a start. She was sitting under the giant tree, surrounded by moss and grass. A dream? How weird, she thought to herself. She got up before noticing a tiny black ant crawling along the surface of the tree she was sitting under. She slowly walked in the direction of Vale, and as the sun streamed through the tall, emerald trees, tiny specks of water danced in the beams of light.

Jenna returned home through the village, passing through the tiny paved market place. It was eerily empty, yet all of the lights inside houses were on. Upon entering her home, see saw all her friends sitting around the table in the middle of the room.

"Jenna! We're going to play Go Fish again. This time we forced Ivan and Sheba to just watch. Want to join us?"

Jenna smiled. "Sure." Finally, some time with my friends. But after the game, maybe I'll go upstairs and read for a little while.

Picard dealt out the cards as the group talked and laughed together, happy they all had such good friends.

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Little tiny note: For Shiro, who helped me get this story out of my head and onto the word processor without the use of scalpels.

Here is a blue mage.

Blue mage: Hello.

He appeared and took the book's Level Five Death spell, died, re-awoke (thank you, Angel Rings), and ran off screaming happily.

Blue mage: Whoosh! Muahahahahahahahahaha!

For you, Shiro.