As the morning dawned over Weyard, the sky strangely enough being free of clouds despite the fact it had not rained for at least five days or so, eight Adepts slowly awoke at the crack of dawn, each of them trying to frantically remember what had happened last night and what they were doing today. It felt like they had partied like crazy last night, but the real partying was today, to celebrate the leaving of Alex.
'Huh... it wasn't a nightmare, was it?' Felix sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning widely. 'It was real. Garet proposed to Jenna. Garet's going to be my brother in law. That's it, I'm going back to sleep, I still need to sleep this nightmare off...' He fell back onto his pillow and pulled the duvet over his head, pleading for sleep to claim him once more. All hopes of being able to get back to sleep were dashed out of the window when liquid yellow sunshine poured down on him, which had resulted from Picard opening the curtains.
"Wake up, sleepyhead!" Picard looked unnaturally cheerful for one who had gotten up at the crack of dawn. "Don't you remember what today is? We're partying to celebrate, er, Alex's Departure Day... which was yesterday of course. We've got to put decorations up and everything, and we're going to party like mad down in the plaza."
"Decorations?" Felix bolted upright, his eyes wide. "What the elements do we need decorations for? What kind of decorations?"
"Oh, balloons and things like that," Picard replied. "What did you think? What kind of a party would it be without balloons?"
"But I'm allergic to balloons!" Felix said desperately, hoping that the Lemurian might actually believe his desperate lie, which he had to admit did not sound particularly convincing. "I get all red and puffy and I can't breathe!"
"Nice try, Felix," Picard smiled. "Be down at the plaza soon, we'll need plenty of people to get the decorations up quickly." He turned and left the bedroom and a quietly cursing Felix, who threw the pillow at the window and fervently wished it was cloudy again. For a fleeting moment, Felix considered just closing the curtains and slipping back into bed anyway.
"EEEE!"
Or perhaps not. Felix sighed and slipped out of bed, grabbing a pile of clothes.
"Eeeeee!" Jenna was acting extremely hyper, jumping around the bedroom and screaming at the top of her lungs. Sheba was staring in annoyance at her from underneath her duvet, having been woken up by Jenna's fervent screeching. "I'm going to get married to Garet! He proposed to me last night! I'm his fiancee! He's my fiance! We'll be husband and wife one day! We'll get married!"
"Um, Jenna?" Sheba spoke up. Jenna actually quietened down and turned to look at her wonderingly. "Now, I don't mind you celebrating the fact that Garet proposed to you, but could you celebrate a bit more quietly in future? Hey... celebration... that reminds me of something... celebration? It can't be me and Ivan kissing, that's not worth celebrating, and it was before that... um..."
"Oh! Alex's Departure Day!" Jenna exclaimed, screeching again in joy. "That's right! Alex left the village yesterday and Kraden said we should party and so we're going to party all day long in the plaza, and we'll probably have to string up balloons and stuff because Kraden will want decorations or something... maybe a freak storm will come and take the balloons away... on second thoughts, a storm's not a good idea. Especially not if you have a giant boulder sitting on the mountain above your village. Never live next to a mountain with a huge boulder sitting on it."
"I see," Sheba reluctantly got out of bed. "I suppose Kraden wants us all involved because he's annoying like that. He better not talk all day because the party's going to end in tears if he does so. Either our tears of sheer boredom or Alex comes back to find we're celebrating his departure and he cries like a baby. Apparently, he didn't waste his breath saying goodbye to Mia. I'm surprised at that."
"If Alex came back, that would ruin the party!" Jenna exclaimed. "Oh never mind, he's probably too busy doing something on that list like making a cow paint its own blobs blue or something. I never knew he was that gullible. He was always the girly one of the group before he left us, preening his hair and such."
"And if you dared to touch a strand of his hair without permission, you immediately became his sworn mortal enemy," Sheba grinned wickedly. "And he would cry for hours, mourning over his poor violated hair and muttering death threats towards the person who dared touch it."
The two girls immediately processed to laugh maniacally before getting dressed and setting off to go to the plaza, along with a very grumpy Felix and a very cheery Picard. Oh, and a bag of balloons that were not yet blown up. How they had managed to get hold of them that quickly, nobody knew. Isaac and the others were organising the food and would be bringing it down to the plaza from time to time.
Isaac slowly awoke, trying to remember what had happened yesterday. Quite a lot had happened. Alex had left and Kraden wanted everybody to celebrate, Garet had finally proposed to Jenna and Jenna accepted, and Ivan and Sheba had actually gotten together thanks to his and Mia's plotting... and fortunately he and Mia were still in one piece. Isaac smiled in relief, sitting up and pushing off his duvet. He could already hear voices coming from the kitchen, one of which belonged to his beloved Mia, and he recalled that they were supposed to be arranging the food, as were Garet and Ivan, with the help of Garet's family too. Isaac hurriedly got dressed and rushed down to the kitchen. He was taken aback by how much it had been transformed since last night, there were plates everywhere and steam all over the place, as there was food being cooked, baked, fried etc.
"Phew!" Isaac wiped his brow, sweat already beginning to build on it. "It sure is hot in here! Is there any chance of breakfast?"
"Oh, Isaac!" Mia exclaimed. She was wearing an apron and had some floury substance on her hands. "We're going to be making so much food, that you'll be so full at the end of the day, so I hope you can make it without breakfast. Want to help? Some vegetables need chopping over there." She pointed.
"I see..." Isaac looked over at his mother who was currently cutting up fruit, presumably to make a fruit salad or something. "Since when was Kraden so influential on everybody? He's got the whole village in uproar, at his beck and command!"
"It's a great occasion, Isaac," Mia smiled, waving a wooden spoon in his direction. "Now go chop those vegetables!"
"From what I've heard of that man and how pleased Mia seems to be that he's gone, this must be a good reason for all this work," Dora flashed an alligator smile and Isaac gulped. "Now do what Mia says, we can't be expected to do all the work alone, and you can't sit on your backside all day, Isaac."
"Y-Yes, Mom!" Isaac rushed over to the counter, where the chopping board was. The vegetables seemed to be grinning at him, taunting him for having to chop them up. Isaac brushed away that stupid thought and grabbed the chopping knife. "What about Dad? He's not doing anything!"
"Actually, I sent him out to buy some more eggs, milk and butter and other provisions from the shops down in the plaza," Dora replied. "We were a little low on supplies. Did you really think I'd let your father get away with doing nothing as well? Although I think he would have been happier doing nothing too."
"No, Mom, of course not..." Isaac blearily chopped away, slicing up carrots and peeling the odd potato in the sink. He had the feeling that this was going to be a very boring morning. One thing was for sure, he didn't want to commemorate yesterday as Jenna had suggested if they would have to do this every morning. Isaac picked up a limp lima bean and grimaced, wondering if the lima beans and other assorted horrible looking vegetables would be missed.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The scream that rang out through the village of Vale did not come from somebody who was being murdered, but rather from somebody who had just found themselves the subject of a rather rude awakening. The victim was currently sitting bolt upright in bed, his eyes wide with shock, his jaw hanging open, and he was absolutely dripping wet, while his older sister stood by his bed with an empty bucket cackling maniacally, and his little brother and a midget watched on, also amused by the rude awakening.
"Wh-what was that for!" Garet threw an injured look at his older sister. "Why did you do that?" Kay quietened down, closing her mouth shut, took a good long look at her dripping wet brother and then burst out laughing all over again, unable to form a coherent sentence.
"You wouldn't wake up," Aaron giggled, bending over with his hands on his stomach as he tried to hold in his laughter long enough to answer Garet's question. "So Sis came up with an even better way to get you up and it worked!"
"Morning, doofus," Ivan smiled cheerfully. "Don't you know what today is?"
"Shut up, midget," Garet grumbled, wrapping his arms around himself. "I don't care what today is. Why did you have to wake me up so early?" He had just been having a pleasant dream about himself and Jenna, and he felt that it was totally unfair that he had to be woken up just like that without even a warning. "I need to have my beauty sleep, you know!"
"B-beauty sleep?" Ivan started laughing raucously. "You're kidding, aren't you?"
"You're never going to be beautiful, Garet," Aaron threw him an apathetic look. "Why start now?"
"I don't need to listen to this rubbish," Garet grumbled. "Just let me go back to sleep."
"Um, we can't," said Kay.
"What? Why?" Garet almost wailed. "What have I done wrong? I haven't done anything! And you can't blackmail me anymore, because I've already proposed to Jenna, so there! Oh yeah! I proposed to Jenna, she accepted, and Felix didn't beat me up! YEAH!"
"Alex's Departure Day ring a bell?" Ivan reminded him.
"Alex's... Departure... Day?" Garet frowned. "Oh yeah, that slimeball left the village yesterday! Jenna wanted it to be a calendar day... um, so what does it have to do with me?"
"Party!" Aaron exclaimed. "We're having a party all day, and we've got to do the food, right? So you have to help with the food! Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa are already helping out, and we've got to help too just because we also happen to live in this house."
"I'm helping out too because I want to," Ivan added. "I didn't have to, but since I'm staying in this house, I might as well. You have to help out too, so get yourself out of that bed right now before we all get buckets of water."
"Hey, you don't need to threaten me!" Garet exclaimed, quickly scrambling out of his bed and standing up, more water dripping onto the floor. "Fine, I'll help out just because I hate Alex too, but I don't want to have to do it next year, or the year after that or..."
"Be in the kitchen in about ten minutes or else," Kay ordered, walking out of the bedroom. "Or else there will be trouble!"
"Ooh, I'm scared..." Garet muttered sarcastically. "Why does everybody have to keep telling me what to do?"
"Um, because you're a lazy oaf?" Ivan suggested.
"Get out of my room, you midget!" Garet yelled. Ivan quickly did so, knowing fully well what happened if he actually pushed Garet too far. It didn't help that Mia and Isaac weren't there to keep him in check either. "Sheesh..."
"Never mind, it's only just this once," Aaron smiled. "And there's going to be loads of food, which will make you very happy, won't it?"
"Er, sure," Garet blinked. "Yeah... mmm... food..." He sighed and walked around the room, picking up various articles of clothing to wear for the day.
Soon, all the food was down in the plaza, and Garet had already had his hand smacked with a wooden spoon several times that morning for trying to sneak some food before the actual party. He was currently nursing a bruise and whimpering to Jenna who simply told him he shouldn't have tried to sneak food into his stomach then. Then Garet whined about how unsympathetic Jenna was being but then he realised that she was almost always like that and whining at her about it would not be good for his physical health so he immediately shut up and prayed she would not resort to extreme violence or something.
There were balloons everywhere, in all sorts of different colours and shapes, tied to the tree branches. A bird had already suffered a massive heart attack when they pecked a balloon and it exploded in their face. Mia had healed the bird and gave it a severe telling off, although she doubted it had understood a word she said. There was also a banner strung between two trees, across the top of the plaza steps. On both sides, words had been sloppily painted upon the banner, "Alex's Departure Day."
"I wish I could have helped you with the banner instead of preparing food..." Garet grumbled, staring mournfully at his brand new bruise.
"Are you kidding?" Jenna stared weirdly at him. "You would have spelt it 'Alicks Diparshur Dey' or something!"
"Heyyy!" Garet whined. "I can spell!"
"Really?" Ivan alighted by his side. "I thought you were the kind of person who couldn't even spell his own name!"
"We're meant to be partying not warring," Jenna stepped in front of Garet and glared down at Ivan. "So you shift your backside elsewhere and stop picking on my fiance before I personally ensure that you get your own personal barbecue!"
"Oooh... scary..." Ivan retreated to his new girlfriend's side. "I think it must be one of Jenna's seeing red days."
"It's always one of Jenna's seeing red days..." Sheba replied. "What time of the month is to most girls, to her it's time of the week or something."
"PICARD! PICARD! PICARD!"
"Who invited them to the party?" Felix despaired as he looked upon the fangirls screaming at their idol.
"Aren't all Valeans welcome?" Picard threw him a look.
"It should have been all Valeans except fangirls," Felix shuddered. "And Garet's creepy big sister's lurking around... at this rate, that purple-haired lunatic will probably show up out of the blue as well..." He noticed Picard staring at somebody behind him and frowned.
"Purple-haired lunatic?" said a sugar sweet voice behind Felix.
Felix slowly turned around and screamed as he realised that Feizhi was standing right behind him. "Oh... F-Feizhi!" He took a step back, shuddering. "I... I wasn't expecting you to be here... you're not Valean or anything..."
"Is he Valean?" Feizhi gestured at Picard, looking sceptical.
"Er, no," Felix admitted. "Picard is actually a Lemurian."
"Well then," Feizhi put her hands on her hips. "Then Xianese must be allowed too."
"You didn't even know Alex!" Felix desperately protested.
"Neither did most of the Valeans..." Picard muttered.
"Actually, I encounted that guy named Alex... looks like a girl, right?" Feizhi asked. Felix nodded. "Right. He was sitting on the old man's roof and talked way too much, saying stuff about his beloved Mia, and he actually dared to insult Isaac! How could he insult Isaac? Isaac's charming, gorgeous..."
"Tell that to the fangirls," Felix cut her off. "They all drool over Picard and Isaac has no fangirls. Well, apart from you, maybe."
"POW POW PICARD!"
"Now they've started with the 'Pow Pow Picard' too?" Picard strongly suspected that the author had just missed saying it, but he did not bring that up. "Oh well... they could be saying worse things than that."
"Everybody!" Isaac shouted, waving his arms for attention. "Kraden wants to speak to us!"
"What!" Mia gasped in astonishment. "You're letting him speak? Isaac, are you out of your mind?"
"It's impossible to stop Kraden from talking..." Isaac replied. "So the best thing we can do is listen and hope he shuts up eventually."
"Now, Isaac," Dora popped up and started scolding him. Isaac winced. "Kraden is a good man and he is very wise, so you really should listen and not complain, because you may learn something very important from him one day, if you haven't already..."
"He does have a point though," Kyle appeared and tried to defend Isaac. "Kraden talked non-stop on the way back on the ship when we were returning to Vale from Prox, he never shut up once during the journey. And I don't recall any of it being useful either."
Isaac hurriedly edged away from his parents and tried to concentrate on the rambling old man, Mia clutching tightly onto Isaac's arm and trying to convince him it would be okay, that Kraden would not talk them to death or something, which would be quite tragic, since pretty much every Valean was down there in the plaza, plus a Lemurian, a Contigan, a (kind of...) Laliveran, an Imilian and somebody from Xian. And assorted people who had the nerve to stay at the inn.
"Thank you all for taking the time to listen to me!" Kraden exclaimed as many pairs of eyes were trained upon him. He received some unenthusiastic applause and a few Boos, those who went "Boo!" were promptly told off by a parent. "Today... or rather yesterday was a very special day, as a slimeball villain known as Alex finally left the village! Some of you may have seen him sitting on my roof, fixing it, muttering rude stuff about Isaac!" Someone in the audience cheered and promptly screamed as Feizhi somehow got over to them, pounded them into dust then returned to her former place in a matter of seconds. "He was, in fact, a megalomanic!" Kraden paused for dramatic effect, waiting for it to sink in. Pretty much everybody just gave him bored stares and he was disappointed to see that nobody had gasped in amazement or shock.
"That's old news..." Garet yawned. "I knew it the second we saw him in Sol Sanctum."
"No, you didn't..." Jenna argued. "He showed no megalomaniacal tendencies then."
"Eventually, Alex finished fixing my roof and soon left, which was in fact yesterday!" Kraden exclaimed. "He had talked so much during fixing my roof that he annoyed me to the point where I push him in a pot of boiling water!"
"Kraden, push Alex in a pot of boiling water?" Felix murmured. "Don't make me laugh."
"That would be funny though..." Picard chuckled.
"He deserves it for saying all that stuff about Alex," Feizhi declared, her eyes narrowing to slits.
"I decided that we should have a party to celebrate him leaving, and that special day we shall know as Alex's Departure Day," Kraden gestured at the banner hanging above the steps. "Jenna was the one who suggested the name, and it is of course very fitting. Now, we are all ready to celebrate it, there is food for everybody and lots of balloons! How fun! We are here to party today, and party we shall! Have fun!"
Pretty much everybody, or nearly everybody, cheered as Kraden finished talking and even clapped. Kraden thought they were applauding him for his speech, not quite realising that they were only cheering and clapping because he had finally finished his lengthy speech. Obviously some of them had never heard Alex going on and on otherwise they might have thought Kraden's speech very short. However, it was over now, so everybody surged to the tables, grabbing whatever food they could, Garet heaping loads of food on his plate of course, despite warnings that he might get sick. As far as he was concerned, warnings were just there to spoil his fun.
"Phew... I thought he would never shut up..." Isaac chewed on a pastry, smiling. "Okay, so it wasn't that long, but it was still long."
"There's so much food," Mia munched on a slice of pie, looking up and down the table. "We're going to be eating this for months."
"Nah, Garet will eat it all," Isaac chuckled.
"What's that about Garet?" Jenna asked, approaching Isaac.
"Er, nothing, Jenna," Isaac chuckled nervously. "Hey, why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing always means something!" Jenna exclaimed. "Everytime somebody says 'nothing' they are actually hiding something, why even bother saying nothing at all? Why not just say 'Oh, I'd rather not tell you' and be done with it? Because if you say nothing, then you are actually lying and you deserve to be burnt for it-"
"Hey, Jenna, come and try this really nice cake!" Garet quickly pulled his girlfriend away before Jenna could inflict general bodily harm on Isaac. "I'm sure that you'll like it too!"
"Phew..." Mia smiled at her boyfriend. "That was a close one, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, we've had a few close ones lately..." Isaac glanced at the Jupiter Adepts who were currently sitting by a tree and kissing. "They could have cast Spark Plasma on us or something for what we did last night, but we got away with it."
"Well, we should retire from plotting," Mia suggested. "Especially since everybody seems to be together now."
"Well, Felix still hasn't got anybody," Isaac pointed out. "At the rate things are going, he probably won't. He's insulted the fangirls several times."
"Those fangirls give me a headache," Mia glanced at the obsessed Valean girls who were still shouting at Picard. "But I think we can take it as a sign that Picard does not need to worry about being able to find a prospective girl for himself in the future if ever he should need one, he's got a queue of suitors waiting to claim him."
"Wow, this cake really is good..." Jenna licked her lips and sucked at her fingers. "Who made it?"
"Isaac's mom, I think," Garet answered. "She's a good cook."
"Well, aren't you two all loved up?" A voice cut into their conversation and they turned to see Kay smiling like an alligator at them. "Garet, I really enjoyed making you do the chores and I do hope you will do them more often from now on."
"Yeah right," Garet grimaced. "Just because I live in that house, I should do chores?"
"Yep," Jenna answered. "You can't expect girls or women to do the chores all the time, Garet! Men should do their fair share of the work around the house too, if they don't then they are just lazy, incompetent imbeciles and they really shoud be fed to a crocodile or-"
"Still want to marry her, Garet?" Kay chuckled maniacally and walked away, shaking with laughter.
"Of course I do!" Garet exclaimed. "Now, Jenna, when we get married and have our own house, perhaps we could... compromise on chores?"
"Yeah, you do all the chores, I'll put my feet up and do nothing," Jenna smiled. "Role reversal sounds fun, doesn't it?"
"Yikes..." Garet sweatdropped.
"This is a nice party," Ivan snuggled up to Sheba while munching on a slice of chocolate cake. "Free food and not having to do any work. It's been a hectic week, hasn't it? We've had plotting, wars and I've dabbled in slavery. Very fun."
"And we finally came clean," Sheba smiled, resting her head on Ivan's shoulder. "I didn't really think it would ever happen, did you?"
"Nah..." Ivan chuckled. "I was terrified, weren't you?"
"You were? I couldn't even tell..." Sheba grinned. "Me too, I guess. But that kiss was really something, wasn't it? And then Isaac and Mia just exposed themselves like that... we didn't even have to punish them for it because everything had gone so well."
"I guess we owe them huh?" Ivan wiped his mouth. "If it wasn't for them, I doubt we'd be a couple yet."
"Well, all's well that ends well..." said Sheba. "We're a couple, so are Isaac and Mia. Garet and Jenna are engaged, Picard's got about a million fangirls to pick from but poor Felix is still lonely. Whatever are we going to do with him?"
"I don't know," Ivan mused. "Maybe he's better off left to his own devices, he can be pretty temperamental if provoked."
"He's not that bad," Sheba protested. "Just needs careful persuasion."
"POW POW PICARD! POW POW PICARD!"
Picard sighed as the Valean fangirls continued to scream insanely at him. At this rate they might never leave him alone, but at least he knew how to make them quiet down for a bit. He grinned and walked up to the fangirls, looking as charming as he possibly could.
"My dear fangirls- I mean, beautiful girls," Picard hastily corrected himself. "It is my pleasure to have you all within my presence, there is nothing that makes me happier." At once all the fangirls screamed and fainted to the ground. The Lemurian shook his head and walked away, leaving them all lying on the ground in sheer bliss at the thought of being able to make Picard very happy just by being there.
"Typical Lemurian," Felix muttered, biting into a lamington. "Making them all faint just like that. Why couldn't he have done that to all the monsters we battled on our journey? Might have made it a bit easier... especially in that fight against my parents and Isaac's dad... I mean, the Doom Dragon."
"Your parents fought you as a dragon?" Feizhi overheard Felix talking to himself and stared in amazement. "How did they do that?"
"Got turned into a dragon by a rock with an eye," replied Felix, looking very serious.
"Er... okay..." Feizhi frowned and looked away. "You Valeans have... very weird things happen to you. And I thought that woman always carrying water was insane. I should probably just go home when the party's over, I don't want to get crushed by a boulder or something."
"... Just who have you been talking to?" Felix asked. "Vale's not that dangerous! Honest... I think... well... sort of... not usually..."
"Apparently, it's very common to see a rock or a boulder rolling around the village, and seeing the mountain erupt..." Feizhi looked wide-eyed. "Isn't that true? That girl, Sheba, told me so, she said it was very dangerous here."
"You just got to be careful," Felix finished off his lamington. "If you fall foul of a disaster and are lucky, you'll probably just get picked up by people and held hostage in a faraway village for three years while people think you're dead. People in Vale are very pessimistic, they don't bother to look for the body. Well, I think they did, but I never asked... but you should find the body before you say they're dead."
"I see," Feizhi was disturbed. "That's very nice, thank you for, er, trying to assure me that this village's safe... I'm grateful to you. But regardless, I should set off back to Xian sometime, my father may actually worry about me although I doubt it. I've had a very nice time here and I hope to come back sometime in the future. I think I shall go pack now. Bye."
"Bye," Felix replied, reaching out for a meringue. Feizhi stared at him for a moment then shook her head and set off towards the inn. Felix quietly sighed in relief and wondered if he could convince everybody to celebrate 'Feizhi's Departure Day'. Probably not, Feizhi wasn't exactly hated while Alex was.
"So Feizhi's off, then?" Picard walked over, watching the purple-haired girl go to the inn. "I actually thought for a moment you two could be a couple or something, but obviously you don't intend to be sometime soon."
"No way, she scares me witless," Felix protested. "Besides, she loves Isaac even if he loves Mia. Well, you know what they say, love really does bite, she's just got to deal with it and move on, and not in my general direction, thank you very much. It was already embarassing enough when she actually thought I was Isaac."
"Even if love bites, things have gone pretty well," Picard indicated Isaac and Mia, Garet and Jenna, Ivan and Sheba. "Matches made in heaven, aren't they?" He reached behind him and got hold of a sandwich.
"We'll find out," Felix answered. "Although I have little interest in affairs of the heart, but it seems I have been constantly exposed to such things, so there's nothing I can do but just watch it all take its course. And don't you ever try plotting against me, because I'll be a lot less forgiving than Ivan and Sheba of Isaac and Mia, rest assured."
"That's a shame, because there's one or two fangirls I might want to try to offload on you," Picard broke off at Felix's demonic glare. "But obviously you're not looking yet. I guess we'll just have to be two happy bachelors for a while, hmm?"
"Yes, that suits me fine... just for a while..." Felix responded, watching as Isaac and Mia embraced passionately, going from kissing to snogging to frenching in just a few seconds, then Garet and Jenna proceeded to do exactly the same thing. It wasn't long before Ivan and Sheba proceeded to do the same, all of them eagerly looking forwards to the future that lay ahead of them.
