Author's Note

Well, I meant for this to be out at least a month ago, but I just couldn't get myself through it. This is my 'marching band' story-which means I write most it while I'm bored and not playing during practice. I'll attempt to whip out the next chapter a little faster, since I actually know somewhat where the story's going now.

On a bad note, I just lost both my copy of GS and GS: TLA. Bugger. So if I can't find them, my accounts may not be terribly accurate until I can scrounge up the money for new games and work them up to the point I was at. Blergh.

Oh, and as for the name of everyone's favorite Lemurian, I'll be calling him Piers, at least for now. As a Trekkie, I find it hard to associate the name "Picard" with anyone who isn't bald and European.

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Ivan's P.O.V.

It felt weird, playing around. Carefree. I had nearly forgotten what it felt like to do something just for the fun of it. Oh, sure, there was work to be done . . . Vale as any of us knew it was gone, gone for good, and before long everyone would be busy rebuilding. But Isaac said we all needed a break, and I agreed.

They all looked so happy . . .

I leaned back against the tree where I had made my perch, savoring the way the rough bark dug into my back, a natural back massage. Carefully balancing on the thick branch, I took a moment to close my eyes, letting the filtered sunlight wash over me. Whoever invented trees, I mused wistfully, must have had this in mind. A little bit of earth, a little bit of sky . . .

A clamoring of feet arose beneath me as the others made a mad dash for the river. "Last one in's a rotten egg!" Felix called tauntingly, running knee deep into the current of water, a huge smile spread across his face. Mine couldn't help but join in. Ever since we'd returned, Felix had, well, 'come alive' was how Sheba put it. And it was true. I had never seen him quite so happy before, ever . . .

"No fair, Felix!" Jenna pouted, though it was obvious she really didn't mind. "You just beat us 'cause you've got the longest legs!"

"If that's true, why are Sheba and Ivan faster than all of us?"

"Well, THEY-!"

Sheba dashed past me, vaulting up the limbs of my tree and hurling herself into the air like an acrobat. "CANONBAAAALL!" she declared in mid-air, curling herself into a ball and crashing into the river with a heavy sploosh. Water sprayed every which way, soaking both Jenna and Felix in seconds. I raised my hands in a half-hearted attempt to fend off the sudden spray that splashed against the tree.

"Sheba!" I complained as she surfaced, wiping water droplets from my face with the now damp edge of my sleeve. "I don't suppose you could give a little warning before you do that . . ."

"What's that, Ivaaaaan?" she drawled, pretending to have water in her ear and clearing it out it a twisting finger. "I didn't heaaaar you." She grinned madly.

"By Sol," I muttered, half-joking. "You could pass for my little sister."

"Ivan onii-chaaaaan!" she wailed obligingly, treading water against the slight current. "Nah. I'd rather be Felix's sister!" She quickly swam to where Felix still stood and leapt on his back.

"Ack!" he cried, unbalancing and nearly falling into the river. "Hey, one little sister is enough!"

Jenna grinned and clamped herself onto Felix's arm, passing Sheba a glance. "Oniiii-chaaaaaaaan!" they chorused, attempting to dunk him in the river as he splashed at them with his free arm.

"Away! Away, roguish tyrants ye!" he cried theatrically, waving his arms.

I chucked and shook my head, basking in the bright feelings they projected glowingly. There were times, I admit, that I've cursed my mind reading abilities and the mash of emotions that always surged into my mind. But to just sit here and let their happiness wash through me . . . if heaven was any more wonderful, I think I'd go mad from the force of it.

"Come on, Garet . . ." Mia coaxed, the river washing around her ankles as she waved the fire adept towards the water. It was odd to see her without her long skirt, but something that heavy would certainly prove a problem while swimming. "The water's just fine . . ."

"Easy for you to say," Garet muttered, cautiously dipping a toe in the current and quickly withdrawing it with a shiver. "When did you ever consider water not fine? Maybe this would be considered warm in Imil, but 'round here I call it frigid."

Isaac shook his head with a soft laugh, arms crossed as he stood watching the two. I couldn't tell from where I sat, but I could practically feel the way smiles danced in his eyes. "The water's fine, Garet," he agreed, though I noticed he himself stood only ankle deep in the river.

"Fire doesn't like water," Garet grumbled under his breath, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"Jenna doesn't seem to mind," Isaac pointed out, watching as she, Sheba, and Felix splashed river water at each other in what had escalated into a full-scale water war.

"That," Garet argued pointedly, "is Jenna." The tone of his voice suggested those three words summed up about every act the girl did. He scanned again across the wide expanse of river, cautiously wary of its lazy current. "And you are NOT getting me in there."

"Garet . . ." Mia sighed, a patient exasperation wearing through her tone. "I can't believe that you were so excited to go out on the ocean and you won't even swim in a measly river."

"I haven't had good luck with rivers," Garet muttered, obviously hinting to the night of nearly four years past when the Proxians first entered Sol Sanctum. At one time that reference might have cast a sad shadow across Isaac's face, but now it barely seemed to register. "Besides," Garet added, "I never had to swim in the ocean. Just ride in a nice, sturdy Lemurian boat."

Garet glanced about once more, taking note of each person present. "Hey . . ." he said with slow realization, "speaking of Lemurians, where the heck is Piers?? Before you bug me into getting soaked, why don't you recruit him?"

"Piers," Mia said patronizingly, shifting her weight, "is cooking our dinner."

"What?? If Piers is getting out of this to cook, I am so out of here!" He turned and began walking back towards the makeshift camp the Valeans had set up outside of Vault.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this," Mia sighed, though I could have sworn I saw a mischievous glint in her eyes. She lifted her arms from her sides, fingers outstretched towards the water around her. "Deluge!" she shouted, Psynergy fizzing around her. The river obeyed her command, swelling from its banks in a wave of water that surged over the retreating Garet and dragged him back to the river.

"M-Mia!" Garet sputtered, treading water pathetically as he attempted to clear the water from his mouth and nose.

"Shut up, land boy," she said, rolling her eyes and dunking him. "Time for your swimming lesson."

I tuned out of the conversation, knowing Mia would get her way from this point out. Closing my eyes, I let my mind wander, following the threads of life and consciousness that grew up around me. When Hammet first began taking me along with him as he traveled, I had discovered this as a way to pass the time. "Mind walking," I called it, though I never told anyone, leaving them to think I was daydreaming. As I first began, I could only 'travel' to the life energies and minds of those nearest to me. I quickly learned to avoid the minds of humans. If they noticed me, I found, few would hesitate to seek me out. Strange occurrences were always blamed on me, whether they were my fault or not.

These past few months, however, I found myself able to reach out further and more easily, covering many miles where I could once managed only several feet. Today as I let my mind wander, it felt as though everything was feasting, radiating pure contentment as it soaked up the elemental energies now returning to the world. It was as though everything was a basin, once barely filled, now overflowing. The world was whole again, whole and right and happy.

And yet . . .

And yet there was something that lingered at the back of my contentment, hovering there like a feeling of being watched. Eve though the world was satiated once more, these past few days felt more like a dangerous beginning than a happy ending, like the calm before a storm.

The tree suddenly shivered around me, jolting the tendril of thought that connected me to my body. I came to myself with a start, blinking my eyes back into focus as Isaac swung up the tree to join me on an outstretched limb. He was thoroughly soaked, and his mop of blonde hair hung over his eyes in wet strangles.

I gave his a half smile, quickly burying my unease beneath it. Isaac replied with his own lopsided grin. "Hey. I've been instructed," he said in that careful way that made it hard to tell if he was joking, "to come get you and throw you in the river."

"Oh, come on . . ." I protested half-heartedly, knowing it was a moot point. "I'm not even dressed for swimming."

"That, Mia has told me, is no excuse." There was a humorous twinkle in his eye, though his smile was slow and unrevealing. That was one thing I had always noticed about Isaac-he never rushed into anything. It wasn't so much that his emotions were muted, but that they radiated from him instead of showing outright.

"So she's finished torturing Garet and decided to move on to me?"

"Yep, that's about it . . ." He leaned back into the trunk of the tree and yawned, obviously not intent on hurrying the point. A long moment passed as we sat listening to the rustling leaves and muffled shouts below us.

"Hey, Ivan," he said finally, voice now serious as he gazed down at the others splashing and swimming. "You've been pretty pensive lately . . . What's up?"

"I'm . . . not sure," I admitted. Leave it to Isaac to notice what not even Sheba had. Though, true enough, for one who could read emotions, I was no good at hiding them. "I guess . . . I don't believe it's over."

"I know what you mean," Isaac agreed, almost purposely misunderstanding me. "It's hard to believe it's really over. I guess the reality hasn't really set in."

"No, it's . . . not that . . ." I sighed, searching for a way to explain it. I hadn't meant to tell anyone - not yet. Not while they were so happy. "It's just . . . I really don't think it's over. It doesn't . . . feel over."

Isaac said nothing, but his expression drew drawn and concerned. He looked at me silently from beneath a bland face, asking me to continue.

I paused a moment before speaking again, watching the others playing below us to be sure they weren't listening. I didn't want to worry them - not 'til I was absolutely sure. "It's like . . . Do you remember when Kraden told us about oxygen? How it's the part of the air we breathe and when you put its pure form in a room everyone feels really good?"

An unhindered thought flowed from Isaac's mind. 'Leave it to Ivan to remember about air . . .' My mood lightened slightly at that, but quickly sombered as I continued. "But if you let a spark, a little bit of fire in the room, it'll consume everything in a fiery explosion?" I sighed, glancing out through the verdant canopy of leaves. "That's what it feels like; everything feeling really good, but that terrible twinge of close danger." A disgusted frown engulfed my face. " . . . That made no sense, did it? I'm probably just imagining things."

"No, I think you're right . . ." A tinge of worry seemed to permeate from him. "I meant it when I said it's hard to believe its over. And I don't think it is. There's too much that hasn't been resolved . . . but I guess I don't have to explain that to you."

"No," I agreed quietly. " . . . Don't tell the others. Not yet. I don't want them to worry."

"They'll find out soon enough. But I won't say anything." His gaze turned once again to the watery antics of our friends below us, a slow smile wafting across his face. "They deserve this."

I nodded solemnly and we sat in silence for another long moment. Finally Isaac's manner changed, a mischievous smile capturing his face and a humorous glint stealing into his eyes. "I did promise Mia I'd dunk you," he reminded me. Before I could react to what he said, he abruptly leaned forward and shoved me from my precarious perch into the waiting river.

"Yh-yaaah!" I cried in surprise before my voice was caught up by the resulting crash of water. Flailing in the underwater current for a moment, I resurfaced. "Isaac!!"

He grinned down at me from the tree. "I warned you."

I started to voice a protest, but it was quickly stifled as Jenna tackled me from behind. "Tee-hee! Got you now!"

"There is no escape . . ." Mia added in her best attempt at a sinister drawl, waggling her fingers above my head. For a moment I considered whether I could escape back to the trees, but the thought passed as I noted the gleaming smiles on their faces and the happiness radiating from them.

"Alright, you got me," I conceded, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender. Let them-let us have a little fun . . . just for a little while . . .

As I gave myself up to the grins and squeals and splashes of the river, a little voice berated me in the back of my mind. I ignored it. For now, at least, the world could wait.