Pairings in this chapter: none (yes, there will be eventually) Author's notes: Unfortunately, in the last chapter I mixed up Kalay and Tolbi, won't happen again, I promise (mainly cuz neither town is involved in the later plot... I think)

story:

Isaac stood and stretched. The breakfast, as it usually was in Garet's house, had been an enormous plateful of food, he ate it all to be polite, and found his plate suddenly re-filled by Garet's mother. When Isaac stared at it with the "am I really supposed to eat that much?" look in his eyes. Garet's mother excused herself as she told him that she'd forgotten just how little most people ate. Garet had been up for at least two hours eating. And it wasn't really unusual for him to do so.

"oh man, I'm stuffed..." Garet managed to squeak out from behind a mouthful of sausage,

"It's amazing, you must be feeling sick if you only ate seven plates of breakfast!" his mother exclaimed.

"No, no, I'm fine, see, me and Isaac are going fishing in... ACK! half an hour ago!" Garet grabbed Isaac's arm and ran out the door with two fishing lines in tow. Ten seconds later Garet came in and took half of the pile of toast sitting on the table, all in all around 6 pieces.

"How do you eat so much?" said Isaac, mouth agape and finger pointing towards his belt, "is it magic or something? with how much you eat you should've been an elephant!"

"Hey," said Garet scarfing down another piece of toast in a single bite, "how do you think the elephant would feel if he knew he was the butt of your jokes against me,"

"what are you going on about?"

"...what?" Isaac merely stared back at him with a bewildered look upon his face,

"You know, you are the biggest idio--" he was cut off as a piece of crust was thrown at him, "what was that for!!!"

"you talk too much," said Garet, pelting Isaac with more crust.

"You eat too much!"

"you don't eat enough!" and Garet stuffed an entire piece of toast into Isaac's mouth and ran off towards the stream they had planned to go to for fishing, "First one there gets the toast!"

Isaac trod after him sighing in exasperation, "geez, you can be such a pain..." meanwhile off in the distance Garet was doing a happy dance and eating toast.

Mia walked into the little town of Vault, she immediately went to the Mayor's house. She just had decided before meeting up with Ivan again she may as well speak with the mayor of Vault whom they helped a long time ago. Upon knocking and entering, she discovered only the mayor's wife standing there,

"Hello miss Mia! so nice to see you again!"

"Yes it is," said Mia, smiling politely, "I sent Ivan a letter telling him to meet me here in Vault, we'll be going to Vale together to visit Isaac and Garet for a get-together of sorts," Mia smiled again, unable to wait to see her former travelling companions again.

"I'm terribly sorry to tell you this, but Ivan has been in Kalay for the longest time! but you're right, a letter did come for him, we sent it off down to him."

Mia nearly fell over at the news, "WHAT D'Y--" Mia closed her mouth, took a deep breath and started again, "I'm sorry, now, what were you saying about Ivan not being here?"

"er... um.. eheh, actually, he's been there for a few months, about a week after you last wrote him, miss Mia"

"fine then, I'll set off for Vale, I should hope he's gotten my letter by now. If he comes by Vault instead of going straight to Vale, tell him I've gone ahead to meet him there, alright?"

"no need, "miss" Mia" came a familiar voice from behind her, she turned and saw Ivan standing in the doorway, she nearly tackled him with a hug.

"Oh, Ivan! I'm so happy to see you again! but how did you get here so quickly?"

"You walked, I took Master Hammets Caravan," Ivan smiled at her, "fastest horses on Gondowan,"

"I'm glad, we can leave straightaway for Vale, then." she turned Ivan around and pushed him out of the door, the mayor's wife stood stunned and waved her off. Suddenly remembering herself, she grabbed something from the drawer in the table and ran out the door, "Miss Mia, mister Ivan! I've something for you!" Mia turned, she had been pushing Ivan the whole way, he stumbled a bit and went over to tend to the horses figuring Mia could handle whatever it was the woman wanted.

"Er, yes miss?"

"my husband is deceased past this unfortunate week, and he left me this medallion. He told me to give it to any of you if you should ever come by Vault once again."

"But miss, we don't fight anymore, we shouldn't--"

"He said for you to take it, miss Mia, and I'm afraid I must oblige to his last request and enforce this medallion upon you."

Mia found her hand reluctantly unfolding from under her cloak and she held it out, the medallion, portraying the goddess Luna, was gently placed in her hand.

"Thank you miss Mia," said the mayor's wife, she bowed, turned, and went back up the steps and into her house.

"alright, now that we've finished here, could we please get going now?" said Ivan, slightly impatient after waiting around for a good fifteen minutes while the two women had been bickering,

"yes, let's go now, Ivan." she hopped up and took a seat beside Ivan on the caravan, "Oooh! I can't wait to see Isaac!"

"What about Garet?"

"what about Garet???"

"Mia, he's your friend too."

"and a pig,"

"then next time we're on an adventure, I'll do the cooking, and in the morning, don't bother asking where Garet went, he won't of left us until we've relieved ourselves for the day."

Mia laughed as Ivan's joke, "I said he acted like a pig, I didn't mean he'd taste like one,"

Ivan winked at her, "well I suppose we'll find out, then."

They both laughed at the horses trotted from Vault's entry, the Mayor's wife watched them laughing as they left, her eyes empty and dark, "Excellent work, my puppet, and all I had to do was pull a few strings!" the darkness surrounding her laughed and she was consumed by the shadows, the Mayor's house burned down later that day, and no one could remember when the fire had started, or when it was snuffed out, the citizens of Vault continued to walk the city, all of them looking on with dark, empty eyes at a world that didn't seem to exist.

author's notes:

yay! evil-ness! in case you didn't pick it up, the evil bad guy in this story is a puppeteer who posesses his victims and uses them for his own gain, symptoms of being posessed include ever-present drool, empty eyes, and cold to the touch skin. Yes, Vault has been completely taken over. G-day to you all

Ivan: kicks E.D. what?

Ivan: I dunno, just felt like kicking something

why didn't you kick Mia?

Ivan: she would've killed me...

she can kill you, I can put you into a m/m relationship with dun dun dunnnn! Garet! muwahahaha

Ivan: gasps and goes to a dark corner to cry and pray it doesn't happen

no, it doesn't happen, this was a completely random thing, and if you're reading this... er... you're probably as insane as I am...