And why south of all places? Felix and Garet were gone to the west, visiting Contigo, while Jenna had taken off to visit Mia and her two young charges in Imil. Flint sat on his shoulder, chirruping away about some nonsense or other, blithely oblivious to the young swordsman's musings.
All at once a terrible shaking began.
Flint fell off Isaac's shoulder as the young swordsman took an involuntary seat on the ground. The djinni looked rightfully upset as he bounced along the turf. Fortunately for the travelers, the area that they were crossing was fairly clear of any falling objects (save djinn, of course). A tense few minutes passed before the earth stopped moving and all was silence once again. Hesitantly, the birdcalls of the region began to sound out.
Isaac shook his head in amazement, shrugging his shoulders at Flint as the djinni bounced over to him, asking "what happened?" in a high pitched squeal. Crystal peered over Isaac's shoulder, where he'd been holding on for dear life and scolded the other djinni into silence. "SHUT UP FLINT!"
Isaac blinked as Flint finally settled down. "Wow."
Crystal fidgeted a bit as the swordsman regarded him with something resembling awe. "He was starting to get on my nerves." The djinni tried to explain his unorthodox behavior. Isaac merely shrugged in response before standing back up. "Wonder what just happened?"
Scooping up Flint, he started southward once more. Perhaps there were answers to be had there.
He hoped the others were okay; Vale should be fine, but Imil was on
the ocean, and Felix and Garet were still at sea. Who knows what would
happen in either place?
Mia looked up from where she was preparing tea as an excited Justin tumbled into the room. Megan followed right on his heels, her face awestruck. "Mia, she can melt our snowballs faster than we can throw them!"
Jenna stepped into the house just then, covered in sweat from the exertion. Shaking her head at the younger pair, Mia stepped over to her friend and gave her a once over. "You'll have to get into a dry set of clothes before you do anything else." The look that she threw back at the twins calmed them somewhat. "And that goes for you two as well."
As they trooped to their room, Jenna smirked and hung up her coat and gloves. "Don't worry and don't appologise for them Mia - they just like to have fun once in a while. It doesn't bother me that I'm soaked all over; I had too much fun playing with fire."
The mercury adept nodded in understanding and then shooed her friend into the other room to get changed. Returning, Jenna found the two young clanners setting the table in preperation for the evening meal. Wonderful smells came from the kitchen portion of the house.
Mia swept in behind her charges carrying a tray with teacups and a kettle. Settling the tray on a side table near the window, she paused to pull forward her rocking chair. "Come over guys, the tea is ready!"
The other three pulled up chairs and waited as Mia poured and handed out. Silence reigned for a few moments afterward while they drank their tea. Justin and Megan sat politely when they finished and looked out the window at the tree in the yard. Two snowbirds hopped about in its branches, chasing each other in circles. Suddenly they froze as the branches began to tremble. The teacups on the tray began to rattle, and the occupants of the house looked askance at one another.
"Earthquake?"
Mia gathered up the tray with the cups and hastened into the kitchen to deposit them in the sink. Hurrying outside, Justin pointed towards the ocean. "Look! Look!"
"Oh my word…" Jenna stopped dead in her tracks and stared. A humungous wall of water was rapidly approaching the shore; and in turn, the village. The power of such an enormous surge was not going to be pretty, even when it came to the sturdy construction of Imil's huts.
Mia grabbed the two younger mercury clanners by the arms and hauled them along. "Come on Jenna, we've got to get to the lighthouse!" The other girl wondered at the statement, but hastened after her friends. Perhaps the elemental lighthouse had a chance of surviving the deluge intact.
The blue haired adept sped over the path, fear lending wings to her feet. The village, her village, was about to be destroyed. There seemed in her mind one small chance to protect everyone as she had sworn to do, but it would require perhaps more psynergy than she had yet used in any circumstance previous, save one: The attempted resurrection of Jenna's parents after they had been merged with Isaac's father to form the great Doom Dragon.
The door to the lighthouse loomed ahead, and she couldn't see the water anymore. Mia pressed onward, trailed now by the other three as she headed for the Goddess statue. Honor the Goddess…
Ply was cast on the statue…
Outside the wave converged on the tower.
Magus frowned. Something had gone amiss in the future, causing ripples in the fabric of time. He'd felt it back in the past where he'd been searching for his lost sister. Now he'd arrived at the end of time to confer with the watcher there. However, when the dark mage stepped inside from his gate, he'd noted the absence of the venerable figure. No one was leaning against the lamp post.
Everything else seemed to be in it's proper place, the doorway and the two fenced off areas. Magus heaved a sigh as he remembered the second member of the End of Time. A short, annoying, fluff-ball who loved to style himself as the "God of War". Grumbling to himself, the mage strode over and opened the door. Spekkio was there, dancing around in the middle of the room in his fluff-ball form.
"What happened here, runt?"