Love Bites

"That's it?" Isaac and Mia both asked simultaneously as Kyle and Dora finished telling their tales. Even though they were not in the same room even. Mia was still in the kitchen listening to Dora, while Isaac had been outside the whole time listening to Kyle.

"That's it," Dora said, looking pleased with herself as she stood up. "Now I hope you'll be able to work the same charm over Isaac. You would make a lovely daughter in law."

Mia went bright red and quickly excused herself, hurrying out of the house before Isaac's mother could manage to embarass her any further. She hadn't even told Isaac her feelings, let alone considered marriage. Although Mia certainly would not mind marrying Isaac.

"Nice tale, Dad," Isaac said truthfully, actually having enjoyed hearing it but now wondering how it could possibly help him get together with Mia.

"Yes, it is..." Kyle got that faraway look in his eyes, dropping the stick which only a short while ago he had been whittling with a knife. Isaac hurriedly got up and walked away.

Isaac and Mia were both walking towards each other, neither of them any clearer on the situation than they were, and both lost in their thoughts as they tried to figure out what to do. In fact, they did not know they approached each other until they collided.

"What are you- oh, Isaac!" Mia flushed even brighter red.

"Sorry," Isaac grinned awkwardly, also becoming red. They both saw each other's expression on their faces and then they started chuckling softly.

"No, I'm sorry," Mia managed to speak through her giggles. "I should have looked where I was going. I was talking to your mother."

"Really?" Isaac looked interested. "About what?"

"Oh, um," Mia paused, trying to think how to tell him. She didn't want to tell him that she was trying to figure out how to gain him as a boyfriend, that would completely give it away. "She was telling me about how she and your dad got married and stuff like that."

"Wow," Isaac's eyes widened. "That's funny! My dad was telling me that too!"

"Well, I guess it's something special to them," Mia explained. "So it makes sense they would want to recount it to other people, especially you since you are their son. I guess your mom just thought I might like to hear it too."

"Yeah... is it nearly lunchtime yet?" Isaac asked, trying to swerve away from the topic before the truth of his feelings for Mia came out.

"Oh, yes," Mia remembered. "That's right, your mom's just preparing lunch right now."

"Good, I'm hungry," Isaac grinned.

"Sometimes you sound just like Garet," Mia said wonderingly, shaking her head. Isaac found himself wondering if that was meant to be an insult or a compliment.

For Felix and Picard, lunch was already over. Jenna and Sheba had actually managed to drag themselves away from the riverbanks, and so had Garet and Ivan. Now Picard was once again bugging Felix about getting a girlfriend.

"Picard, please, just DROP it," said Felix wearily, wondering if he would get away with concussing Picard with a tree branch, then deciding against it. "I am not in the mood for looking for a girlfriend."

"Maybe you just need help..." Picard came to a stop and glanced to one side warily. They had been walking north towards Mt. Aleph, the stubborn mountain inexplicably sitting there. Picard had seen something. Felix curiously looked but he did not see anything of interest.

"What is it?" Felix asked finally, half hoping that maybe Picard had just fallen asleep standing up with his eyes open. It would certainly be a relief and he could just run for it and leave the Lemurian there.

"There is somebody there," Picard pointed to a large tree that stood at the mouth of the river. "They are hiding behind the tree. I'll go and see who it is." He quietly crept up to the tree. Felix looked at Picard scornfully, wondering why the Lemurian felt that he had to creep about like that. It wasn't as if Valeans were rabid cannibals that liked to feast on visitors. Actually, Valeans normally kept to themselves when visitors were at large but since there weren't any at the moment, people could do as they wished. There was that dumb law that said not to use Psynergy in front of outsiders (which eight certain Adepts had broken countless times, not to mention two scary Mars Adepts from Prox and a Jupiter Adept who was the sister of a certain other Jupiter Adept) yet some people knew that non Adepts could not see Psynergy or who was using it and had in the past used that to their benefit. Felix winced as he remembered the time he was standing in the inn with a mask on his face and Garet had tried to set his cape on fire.

Picard was beckoning, Felix realised, so he hurriedly walked over and looked at whatever it was that Picard was so excited about. Felix saw a person standing with their back to him, looking up at a higher part of the village as if contemplating climbing up. The person had long flowing blue hair which swayed gently in the wind. Their clothes looked somewhat worn and dirty, even ripped so he could not tell if they were wearing trousers or a dress.

"Stay there," Picard whispered, placing a hand on Felix's shoulder then removing it and tiptoeing up to the bluehaired person. Felix froze, wondering what insane thing it was that Picard was about to do.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Picard tapped the person on the shoulder. "That guy's looking for a girlfriend, would you talk to hi- uh oh..." The person had just turned slowly to glare at Picard and Picard now definitely knew it was not a woman. Felix had already dodged behind the tree and was contemplating a rapid escape and trying to figure out how to do it without being seen.

"I am NOT a girl," Alex icily spoke, folding his arms across his chest. "I am one hundred percent male, even if it might not always seem that way at times. Okay?"

"What are you doing here?" Picard hurriedly changed the subject before the embarassment got any worse. "And I don't remember your clothes looking that bad."

"I was trapped upon Mt. Aleph for a while," Alex decided not to explain why. "I have spent a long time climbing down, living only on water thanks to my Psynergy, and when I reached the bottom at last, I got some fruit nearby. Now that I am fully satisfied, I am trying to find a way out of the village without being seen."

"Why don't you just warp?" Picard asked. "And why do you look like you've been savaged by fifty Kirin summons?"

"I got into a scuffle with the Wise One," said Alex dejectedly. "And I haven't got much Psynergy anyway. I only had enough to heal myself a little, and then allow myself a few water breaks to quench my thirst. I am lucky to be alive."

"I see..." Picard exhaled. "You're still the same, always talking about yourself." He turned away, ignoring Alex's annoyed retort and joined Felix on the other side of the tree. "Tree bonding, are you?"

"No," Felix replied scornfully, grabbing Picard by his shirt. "Don't you DARE do something like that again! That was extremely embarassing!"

"Only trying to help," Picard said sulkily, prying off Felix's hands and dusting down his ruffled shirt.

"Just one problem there," Felix said scathingly. "Wrong gender."

"I apologise," Picard held up his hands and tried to look innocent. "I thought Alex was a girl from the back, I just did not recognise him."

"Huh," Felix turned away and then he heard something that sounded suspiciously like Alex whining. Felix peered around the tree and saw Alex cursing. It appeared that Alex could not climb up and he was not very happy.

"You have two choices," Felix said loudly so that Alex heard him. "One, go the normal way, two, use the river instead."

"Fine," Alex glowered at him, and then he jumped into the river. "I'll swim!" And so, he did, disappearing into the distance. The next thing Felix and Picard heard was a scream.

"He must have fallen down one of the waterfalls," Picard guessed.

A few minutes later, a bedraggled, half-drowned and severely disgruntled Alex booked himself into the inn and disappeared upstairs, seeking solace from the 'evil Valeans'. He was far too humiliated to face the world after losing to a big rock, then being mistaken for a girl, THEN having a run-in with a waterfall. Or perhaps, a swim-in rather.

After hours of plotting with a lunch break in between, Garet & Jenna had come up with nothing new, no evil plots against Ivan and Sheba. Jenna had suggested taking their diaries, but Garet felt queasy when he thought of that idea, after what had happened when Kay stole his own diary so the idea was quickly forgotten.

As for Ivan and Sheba, Sheba had come up with a very clever plan.

"This," Sheba smirked evilly as she held up a bottle of auburn hairdye. "This is temporary hairdye which washes out after a while. I shall dye Jenna's hair with this!"

"Cool," Ivan smirked and considered dying Garet's hair too, but then he thought it would be cute if Garet and Jenna had matching hair, and Garet's was already auburn anyway. "You do that. As for Garet... I have no clue what I'll do to him. Maybe just put a bucket of water on his bedroom door."

"Excellent," Sheba's grin widened. "Well, we shall meet tomorrow and see the results of our indigenous planning. I shall see you later, Comrade Ivan."

"Later," Ivan raised an eyebrow. "... 'Comrade' Sheba."

Night fell and the whole of Vale was fast asleep except for two evil little Jupiter Adepts, creeping around the houses in the darkness. Sheba did not have to creep very far since she was sharing a room with Jenna. She had of course hidden the hairdye and pretended nothing was going on, being ultra passive in front of Jenna and trying her best not to give anything away. It worked.

Sheba quickly worked, pulling a towel under Jenna's head and sloshing hairdye all over Jenna's hair, staining the towel in the process, but it was only a towel. She then rubbed it in carefully and once it looked good enough, Sheba hastily removed the towel and escaped to the bathroom to wash away the evidence. She hoped she would wake up before Jenna did in the morning, Sheba knew how bad Jenna could be about her hair.

Ivan did not have to do much work either. He simply went into the bathroom, filled up a bucket of cold water and opened Garet's door, put the bucket down, got a chair, got onto it (Of course, being a blonde midget has never helped Ivan) and carefully placed the bucket on the door. With any luck, Garet would push the door further open and get properly soaked. Smirking evilly, Ivan got down off the chair, removed it, and hurried back to his bedroom, praying that somehow he would wake up before Garet just in case.

Unfortunately, Ivan did not see the hulking shape looming up behind him. The only indication he got was the sudden sound of breathing coming closer. Ivan turned and looked into those dark brown eyes, saw the fiery red hair illuminated in the moonlight and he almost screamed for he had just been caught and there was no escape, not from those suspicious eyes, not from that twisted snarl.

"Ivan!" The apparition hissed, looking very grumpy indeed. "What are you doing?"

"I was only going to the bathroom," Ivan was shaking in his boots as Kay loomed over him, looking very evil indeed. He was telling the truth, he just had not bothered to tell her why he was going. "What about you?"

"I got up to get a glass of water," Kay spoke in a strangely witchy voice, although it could just have been the fact that it was nighttime that gave her voice that effect. "If I find you're up to mischief, little boy, then you will... join Garet doing chores."

"Ok," Ivan gulped and then thought of something. He immediately widened his eyes and looked ultra adorable, holding his hands as if he was begging, and smiled angelically, talking in a wheedling voice. "Please, could you not tell Garet that I was lurking around here at night? He might get funny ideas, he is strange like that."

"I see," Kay stared at him suspiciously but decided to say nothing of it. "Fine, I'll not tell him, but I want you to get to bed before you go around waking up the entire household! Now, go!"

Ivan turned and fled back to the safety of his bedroom and crawled into his bed, feeling extremely thankful that it hadn't been Garet he'd encountered in the hallway. That would have messed things up severely. His plots could even be sprung. He wondered how Sheba was doing with dying Jenna's hair and hoped it was going well.

And so, every person in Vale was asleep, all of them unaware that the first move had been made towards the oncoming Adept War. Felix and Isaac were having nightmares of the torture they would suffer tomorrow when they went over to clean up Kraden's cottage, Mia was dreaming that she was getting married to Isaac, Ivan and Sheba dreamt they were pursued by angry Garet and Jenna. Garet of course dreamed of food, while Jenna dreamed that her hair was under attack by some mysterious force and she was trying to defend it. Picard dreamt that Alex was a girl (Lets not go there...) and everybody else dreamed ordinary things they dreamt every night anyway.