By the way, if you see any spelling errors in Kaj's speech, they're supposed to be there. He had a lousy upbringing-you can't blame him for talking like a hillbilly, really.
I'd also like to apologize in advance for any description errors or omissions I made during this chapter-I lost my copy of The Lost Age and, no matter how hard I tried to find it again, I discovered that it had vanished on me. I can remember the layout of Madra pretty well, but not perfectly. Thankies.
It was around three o' clock in the afternoon when the nine of them tromped up the stairs into the small city of Madra. One of them, a boy with tall reddish-brown hair, groaned and leaned against one pillar holding up the stone arch that shaded the top step. "I'm tired," he complained loudly. "And I'm hungry, too. Can't we crash at the inn?"
A short girl with bowl-shaped blond hair glared at him. "Nope. We have to find this thief before he figures out we've trailed him here and takes off again with the Tomegathericon."
"Sheba's right, Garet," one of the apparent leaders of the company, a sandy-haired bot wearing a long yellow scarf, said.
"Isaaaaac..." Garet moaned. Suddenly he broke off and stared. Isaac followed his gaze to the second-floor balcony of the inn.
"What?"
Garet blinked stupidly. "I saw him."
A gray-haired old man stepped forward. "Y-you did?"
"He went inside when he spotted us."
The nine of them held stock-still for a moment, then dashed at top speed into the inn.
Isaac and a brown-haired boy exploded through the door first, casting around wildly for their quarry. Isaac called a few orders over his shoulder and took off up the stairs, the brown-haired boy breaking away to check the first floor.
A blue-haired boy and a red-haired girl followed Isaac up the steps, the pair going off to the left and right to search the rooms. Isaac ran out onto the balcony, glanced about once to make sure that the thief wasn't there and turned back to meet his friends on the landing inside.
"Isaac!" the blue-haired boy yelled dimly through the wall. "Stop him!"
Isaac pushed open the balcony door and was confronted by the person most of Weyard knew as the Living Shadow.
He was all black, except for his red-rimmed eyes. He did not walkthrough the doorway; he slid like the darkness he was named for from one patch of shadow to another. In his hand he held, almost indistinguishable from his body, Picard's Black Orb.
With the practised precision of a master Adept, Isaac gathered up a heap of Psynergy. "Ragnarok!"
The Living Shadow looked up and saw the bolt of orange sword-shaped light whistling out of the sky toward him. He nearly vanished into the shadows and reappeared further along the balcony, still hugging the inn wall. The sword crashed into the balcony with an explosion of sparks.
"Too slow," he hissed, his voice strangely reminding Isaac of a cold wind through pine trees. A glittering rapier appeared in his free hand. "Punji Strike."
Before Isaac could do anything at all, a field of bamboo spears hurled him into the air. The Living Shadow smiled-something more like a shark bearing its teeth than an expression of joy-and repositioned himself under Isaac held up to stab straight through him.
"I don't think so!" Garet roared. "Heat Wave!"
One again the Living Shadow was too quick for the attack, easily evading the beam of fire. He ran out of the mid-afternoon darkness and across the balcony, hopping up onto the railing. "Goodbye."
Isaac scrambled back up, watching in disbelief as the Living Shadow leaped to the ground and pelted off through the Madra gates.
"My Orb!" Picard stumbled onto the balcony. "Did you get it back from...that thing?"
Isaac shook his head. "Sorry, Picard. He made off with it."
"Oh." Picard's face fell about thirty feet. "I wonder who he wanted it. I mean, he can't fly the ship without a team of Adepts like ourselves. If he is working with those kinds of people, then he wouldn't repeatedly attack alone, would he?" "But why would he need to fly when we ran out of Psynergy within sight of the beach and decided to sail the rest of the way?" the red-haired girl demanded, pushing her way past Garet and Picard. "The ship is his for the taking!"
Madra came into sight at around sunset. Kaj held up one hand to signal a halt. "'Ere we ahre, folks. Thiru sed 'ee wuz 'eadin' dis way."
"What if he decided to go somewhere else?" A particularly brash pirate shouted. Kaj glanced at Saku the drummer in irritation.
"'Eef 'ee isn't 'ere, we keep lukkin fer 'im! What did yeh expect, bonehead?"
Choosing not to wait for an answer, he waved one arm in the air as a signal to move out. The scruffy band did so, but was stopped again almost immediately.
"P-pirates!"
"Dern," Kaj muttered darkly. "Wuzn't 'spectin' summat like dis."
The pair of guards at the arch looked positively terrified. "First that Living Shadow and now you lot!" one of them wailed. "Can't you all just go away?!"
"Livin' Shadder? Dern Bandit"-every pirate in the party spat on the ground-"werk agin."
"Just take whatever you want! We don't want any trouble with pirates or thieves or anything anymore!" Guard #1 cried with a great show of bravery. Kaj crossed his arms.
"Fine den-gimme the kid named Isaac!"
"Isaac...?" Guard #2 repeated slowly. "Oh-he's with Felix, right? They took off after the Living Shadow. Went south, I think." He slapped one hand over his mouth. "Oops."
Saku couldn't help but grin. "He isn't even the official King yet and he's already taken it upon 'imself to put a dent in the Bandits." The whole group spat once again.
"Awight then!" Kaj shouted. "C'mon, ladies an' gentlemen, let's go find 'em!"
"Y-you're not going to attack us?" Guard #1 stuttered. "You're just going to leave?"
Kaj smiled. "'Less yeh'd like us t'pillage yeh up be'fre we go."
"N-no, sir!"
"Dat's whut I thot. C'mon, people, let's muve!"