Booya, Chapter 2 now getting over-hauled.

Sunny owns NOTHING

Chapter 2
Welcome to Prox

"Where are we going exactly? You said Imil, but we'd have to go through the mountains to get there."

"I said Imil? When?"

"Back when I asked, 'Hey, Ivan, do you know where Piers said we ought to go next?' and then you said, 'Yeah, Jenna, Imil should nice at this time of year.'

"Oh..."

"You're not going to get out of this one with OhIvan." Jenna said in a dangerous tone, her crimson eyes narrow and long auburn hair bouncing slightly with each intimidating step she took "You're going to give me a straight answer, you hear me?" Ivan gulped at the evil look in her eyes, best not to push her.

Or Mia, or Sheba for that matter, the three had him cornered near the back of the ship. He ought to have known better than to have come down alone. Some outrageous stunt that would probably unleash an enraged, humiliated, and homicidal Venus-Adept on them all, would probably not bode to well with the girls. Of course, throwing said girls and confused Venus-adept below decks, so that they did not find out about said stunt, for the entire two week voyage, did not bode to well either.

"You'll smack me if I tell you." He said quickly, backing up against the wall.

"I'll smack you if you don't, then stuff you in a dress, do up your hair, apply some make-up, use your head as a battering ram, and then throw all of you over-board." Jenna hissed, making a fist so tight her knuckles popped, an impressive bit of emphasis.

'If looks could kill, I, and the back half of the boat would be scattered along the Western shores of—Sheba! Noo!' he thought eyes wide as he stared at Sheba, the other blonde blinking a few times as a man with shaggy dark hair, and dressed in all earthen shades of wool and leather opened the door to his cabin.

"Hang on," Sheba said a bit dazed, "Why the We--!" Ivan lunged forward and tackled Sheba to the ground, firmly placing a hand over her mouth to shut her up. In her surprise, the other Wind Adept turned to her first mastered Psynergy, Mind-Read.

'SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Shut! Up! He thought in a rush, ignoring Jenna and Mia who stood there gaping. He looked up in time to see Felix moving back slowly into his room, giving Ivan a wired look as he shut the door.

The blonde boy breathed a sigh of relief where he sat. A breath which was cut short of course as Sheba rocketed him off her with the Cyclone Chip in her pocket. Jenna then grabbed him by the front of his shirt, holding the smaller adept up against the wall with his toes barley touching the floor.

"Explanation, now, Ivan." She snarled, just as Piers and Isaac came down the hall, freezing instantly when they saw the girls with Ivan.

"It was their idea, I swear!" the boy shouted pointing at the two adepts. Isaac's china blue eyes took on a brief look of anger, blonde hair almost seeming to bristle as he glared darkly at Ivan. But, this of course gave Sheba the time to trap him in a wall of Air. The Mariner Piers, with his golden eyes quickly taking in the current danger in the situation made the smarter move. He abandoned all dignity to take off at a run back down the way they'd come. And then… Well, let's just say it was smarter up until the point where he slammed into the column of ice that shot up in front of him.

"Snitch." Piers muttered, as Mia dragged him back down to where they had all been before. She let go of him unexpectedly which caused the blue-haired Lemurian to half-fall very ungracefully when he tried to get up. Ivan almost snickered despite the very serious threat of being ripped to shreds, quickly stifling the reaction as the Admiral actually did stand up, straightening his stiff lavender coat with its high bottle-neck collar. Burnished eyes promised retribution for the humiliation later: Ivan was now very far from the happy place.

"I told you we ought to lock him down here as well." Isaac muttered, his yellow scarf dancing around his heels, his brightly coloured outfit appearing to be a challenge to mover around in with Jenna attempting to throttle him. Her red and brown-toned skirt not hindering her at all as she tried to get answers to her currently difficult to hear questions.

"Hey!" Ivan shouted in his defense, ignoring Piers' glare; Lemurians seemed very involved with keeping up appearances.

"Unless you want to leave Garet up on board, with complete control of this ship Piers," Mia said, adjusting the soft white collar of her crème and blue robes, "I suggest you, Ivan and Isaac tell us what all this is about." Piers seemed to pale slightly at the notion of the second Fire Adept Garet being, well, Garet with the wheel of his ship in his hands.

"Not here." Isaac said in a resigned tone, finally managing to get Jenna away from him. "We'll tell you, but not here."

Felix paced the whole five feet of his cabin up to the wall, the small pine bed, three-legged stool, and built in desk only serving to drastically tighten the space as he moved. The broad-shouldered, currently moping, adept coming to a stop, turning on his heel and striding back to the door, from there; he repeated the whole process again.

"You're gonna wear a whole through the floor soon, you know that right?" Echo asked from where a group of small, brown creatures, each about the size of an apple, just lazed about on the covers of his bed. Each one with matching deep blue eyes, brown bat-wing-like ears, and a large soft underbelly a calm golden colour, it was only through the mind-link established between them all as well as the humans aboard that anyone could tell them apart.

"You've been pacing like that for the past week or so. What's eating you?" Flower asked from where she, at least, according to the Djinni there was a difference between males and females, and Crystal were curled up on his pillow. Felix muttered something under his breath in reply to the Djinn.

"Wha?" Mud mumbled, half-asleep on his master's travel-pack, blue-eyes dazed as his ears dropped slightly from sheer laziness.

"Imil, what kind of fool do Isaac and Piers take me for?" Felix asked, on edge as he ran up to the wall again. Meld poked her head up at the statement.

"What do you mean?" she asked, "What's wrong with Imil, Felix?" The young man stopped pacing and crossed his arms, still un-naturally jumpy as he tapped his gloved fingers against his arm, un-willing to sit still for a moment.

"Nothing's wrong with Imil, other then the fact that we aren't going to Imil." He explained; addressing them all, Salt tilted his head to one side.

"But, that's where the others said we were headed, isn't it, Felix? What makes you think we aren't?" Flower asked him, Echo seemed to have figured out whatever it was as he started bouncing up and down on the bed.

"Cause if we were, then we ought to be there by now!" The Djinni shouted triumphantly.

"Well, duh." Mud said, "You gotta take the mountain path north of Vale to get up there. The Sea's filled with rocks like in-between Osinia and Tundaria. Plus," The sluggish Djinni got up and waddled up to where Felix stood, the human looking ready to start pacing again at any moment.

"We just left Lemuria, why would we have gone south for as long as we have? We're not going there,"

"Then, where?" The Djinn looked up at Felix with their sky blue eyes, the Venus-Adept biting his bottom lip as he looked away,

"We're going back to Prox."

--Flashback--

I rubbed my neck where it had been scratched by the rough wool of my scarf, the coarse feel of my worn gloves not doing much to ease the stinging sensation as I tried to get my way-ward cloak back under control in the icy winds. My mother wrapped one arm around me in the cold as Saturos and Menardi were busy digging the young girl out of the ice above us.

The tight crevasse she had been hiding in had filled with melted snow and now trapped her. My father and Isaac's dad, Kyle, moved forwards and took positions on either side of the large crack.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Saturos shouted at them, the pale bristled hair which only grew along the center of the blue man's head snapping about in the wind. Neither Venus-Adept heeding him as they placed their gloved hands on the stone. I gasped as I felt my father tap into his Psynergy, blue iridescent rings surrounding both men as they forced the sides of the mountain too move a bit too each side, small tremors disturbing the white snow pact beneath my booted feet. Saturos just stared as Menardi reached in and, with the extra room, the blonde woman pulled the small girl out and picked up her frozen form.

"Come on!" She shouted at us, before speeding ahead, us losing sight of her bright red dress in the flurry of snow and ice, Saturos vanishing with her with his cloak still flailing about in the wind. For once, no one argued or went grudgingly. I felt my mother's hand on my back, pushing me forwards, my legs, still sore from the boat-trip, moving woodenly in the knee deep snow. I forced myself to move a bit faster though, not nearly as quickly as Saturos and Menardi leading us, but quick enough to catch up to my father.

"Wha-Why did you? How did you do that?" I asked breathlessly as I came up to where the two men were trudging through the snow. Back home, it had always been rare to see my father, or any of the adults, use anything more that 'Move' or 'Catch' every now and then. I'd seen my father summon small earth-quakes once or twice before to scare off wild animals, but never something like that! My father simply placed a hand on my shoulder though, and smiling at me from behind the scarf that covered the lower part of his face, his dark brown eyes looking down at me warmly.

"We may hold against Saturos and Menardi for what they've done, son," he said, raising his voice to be heard above the wind, "But that young girl has done nothing that we've seen, and we still haven't gotten that explanation we were promised back on the boat." My father looked over my head before glancing back down at me, "Be sure you and your mother stay close alright? We must be close too have started running into villagers, but you can't see three feet in front of you in this weather."

Our party continued north for a short while. I thought I saw a few flags flapping in the sharp winds, frayed edges showing the wind's direction. Finally though, we came to a rough, wooden arch that marked the entrance to the small village of Prox.

Saturos stood just inside the arch, waiting for us with a grim expression painted across his blue face. He counted us quickly as we stopped in front of him, crimson eyes looking pointedly at each of us from above that hook-like nose. Kyle took a daring step forwards though, his short sandy hair all but white with the snow sticking to his head.

"There's no chance of us running anywhere from here, Saturos," Isaac's father said simply, "Just show us where you want us kept, and leave us be until you have something for us to do." I gulped as Saturos merely cocked an eyebrow at the half-order, after all the monsters he and Menardi had fought along the way here, I couldn't help but question Kyle's sanity at the tone he used. But Saturos just shrugged and simply turned to lead us through the, at the moment, maze-like village.

My heart lifted as we walked past the many houses, all similar to those in Vale. A bit shorter maybe, I couldn't see any that looked to be more than one level, and they were definitely made of different materials, but still very similar. Unfortunately though, my spirits fell again as we kept walking, over the rickety bridge which spanned across a half-frozen river flowing through the town. We continued down this path and then took another turn, this one out into a maze of snow. Saturos guiding us through it without a second glance; it seemed for him to be a second nature, just like the way to the Sanctum for anyone who'd grown up in Vale.

Either my mother or father kept a constant eye on me, never letting me slip out of their line of site. Under normal circumstances it would have annoyed me to no end. But the way things were now, with the loss of my sister still an open wound, I wasn't about to complain.

Soon enough though, the endless trek at last came to an end. I couldn't feel any part of my face, legs, or lower part of my thinly covered arms, but at least we didn't have any farther to go. I stumbled where I stood, and I felt my mother instantly near-by with one re-assuring arm around me. I leaned against her, exhausted, only half-realizing that even she was freezing. Closing my eyes I heard her call my father's name, and I felt another hand on my back as my dad tilted my head up to look at me, his dark eyes filled with worry as I opened mine again.

"D-dad..." I said weakly, leaning a bit more against my mother, shivering uncontrollably and wrapping my arms around myself, "I-I can't feel anything, I-I want, t-to go home..." there was talking a ways off, but I was to tired to care, my body suddenly screamed to be warm, and put in to bed.

"Don't worry Felix," my father said, I felt something being wrapped around my head to help hold in what heat was left. "We're here now, they said there's a bed inside, and you can go in and sleep. Just give us a few moments son."

Perhaps it was only a few more minutes, but to me, it seemed like hours. I felt my mother allow some of her Psynergy to seep into the layers of clothing I wore. I leaned heavily against her, but even the added warmth did little to help, my ears were burning, and I couldn't feel half my face or anything below the knees and elbows. Light spilt out on to the snow a ways in from of me, a shadow appearing in the middle followed by a voice, everything sounding so dim and muffled against the wind.

"And what's more, as if bringing three adults against their will all the way here wasn't bad enough, you brought a child! Saturos you dolt! How could you make such a stupid mistake! Your mission was to go and talk to the people of Vale! Not to terrorize them and take hostages!" I felt my world spin as I almost fell forwards, my vision blacking out for a brief moment. I was on my knees without knowing it, my mother nearly hysterical beside me.

"Marci!" the voice shouted, "Get that boy in bed NOW! No questions! I want all of them inside, but get him in bed before anything else! Move woman! Move! Saturos! Help them right now! I hold you responsible for anything that happens to these people! Do you hear me young man! Anything!"

If the man who was shouting had anything else to say, it was lost to me as I felt myself, despite my age and weight, being carried. The warmth hit me like a slap in the face as the wind vanished but I just couldn't stop shivering. I was carried inside and down what felt like a flight of stairs, there was a sound of a woman's voice then Saturos's harsh one that seemed to try and hush the other speaker.

I felt myself being let down onto a warm bed, I bit my lip as the hand of whoever had carried me brushed roughly against the large bruise on my back. I tried to look around and get my bearings, but my eyes refused to open in the slightest for me to make out anything more than blurred colors.

I felt a gloveless hand on my forehead though, and my mother's soothing voice reached my ears. I relaxed almost instantly at the sound; I could begin to make out my father's form up next to my mother. Worry running deeply in their eyes along with fear, their cheeks bright red from being brought in from the cold so suddenly.

"Mom, Dad," I whispered through chapped lips, "I-I want to go home..."

--End Flashback--

"How close do you think we are, Felix?" Petra asked, startling him from his memories. He glanced back at the bed and saw the majority of the Djinn had fallen asleep to the smooth rocking of the ship on the sea. But Petra and Echo, though for the most part dozing, were still awake and perked up waiting for an answer.

"Well? How much longer will we have to wait?" She asked, despite her plump body, the Djinni was still able to tilt the top part of her that would be considered her head, and look at him with her stormy blue eyes.

"Uh... Perhaps another two or three days, maybe less, I can't tell how much Piers has been using the wings." He said, a bit uncertain. Echo seemed to be lost in thought, yawning, the Djinni flicked his bat-ears and looked at Felix.

"Why are we going to Prox anyways? And how-come the others didn't tell you?" He asked; Felix just smirked as he made his way over to his bed.

"One word Echo," he said, moving the Djinn carefully so he could lay down, "Payback."

Bum buh da dam, can't touch this!

Uh… I just felt like seeing if I could type that... Chapter 2 COMPLETE!