Posted: 6-27-05

Chapter 5: The Crater By Contigo

AN: Golden Sun equals Don't Own.

Time went on as they stayed in Contigo, as it tends to do. Ivan was occupied with his hordes of fans asking him about his life, his journey, and what he remembered of this town, if anything. The others tried to find things to do around the village, such as picking good places for walking and looking at the Anemos ruins, which Sheba especially took an interest in.

In fact, one day, about two and a half weeks after arriving in Contigo, while Ivan was doing who knows what in the village, Piers was checking on his boat to make sure that the locals hadn't tried to do anything with it again, and Isaac was out walking, which meant the time or date of his return was still unknown, Sheba had gone over to the large area east of town once again and proceeded with her usual action of looking at the temple and the strange markings on the ground.

She really couldn't figure out the reason why this strange place intrigued her so much. Perhaps it was because that though they had spent time inside, especially fighting that stupidly annoying Dullahan, she had never really gotten to find out what exactly this place was for and what legacy it had left behind. The markings of the flying ship on the ground added to her wonder. They were so precise and clearly laid out of what this craft was supposed to be, and yet the townsfolk spoke of them like they had been there for ages. What ancient culture had left this behind for the people of Contigo to find?

Maybe another reason why Sheba spent so much time there was because there was absolutely nothing to do in town. The boys constantly kept themselves occupied with stupid things, like the dice games, and the citizens never seemed to want to give her the time of day. The one time she had finally gotten into a good conversation with someone, it was an elderly man who didn't reply much until she mentioned her past and her powers. Then he denied what she said by stating that Jupiter Adepts only came from Contigo and that there was no way for another to have "fallen from the sky." In the long run, he didn't believe her at all, probably thinking that she was saying these things for the attention that she had not been getting, and immediately hobbled away.

Today, Sheba decided that looking at the outside of the Sanctum and staring at the markings on the ground, which had four extra shapes other than the boat that she could not figure out, was getting old, so she had sat down by the edge of the giant crater that bordered the ruins. "I know all of this means something," she thought as she looked into the emptiness. "But what?"

"Hey, what are you doing?" she heard a voice say. Sheba turned and saw Ivan walking toward her.

"Oh, nothing really," she answered unenthusiastically, turning back.

"You sure do come out here a lot," he said, approaching where she sat.

"Well, there's nothing else for me to do. The people in the town don't pay any attention to me and if I try to talk to them, they yell at me for lying and walk away."

"Huh?"

"...Don't worry about it."

Ivan looked at her questioningly for a moment and then sat down next to her and looked out into the large, circular hole as well. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Yep, it's a crater," he finally said with a slight grin, turning to look at Sheba who was still staring into it. "Seriously, what's going on?"

"I meant that the one time someone actually talked to me and asked me about myself, they said I was lying when I told them about where I came from and my Adept powers."

"Oh," Ivan replied, looking back into the large area of bare ground. "So why do you hang out here?"

"It's strange," she suddenly said, as though she was answering but yet hadn't heard a word he had said. "This place seems to hide so many secrets and yet I can't figure them out. All of these things must be connected somehow."

"Well, Hama says that these are the ruins from the Anemos people. I think they left the thing about the boat because they somehow knew about it, and... I'm not sure about the rest of it. We could ask her tonight, if you want."

"Okay," Sheba replied quietly, still not totally seeming herself.

"Is something bothering you?"

"I don't know. I've looked around this place so many times but I just can't seem to figure out what exactly this place was for or why it was left the way it was. I can't even figure out why this crater is here."

"Well, if you want to go inside the Sanctum again, I've got the Teleport Lapis."

"No, I didn't really notice anything in there that was overly interesting that we didn't check out. It's more of everything outside fitting together."

"Have you checked everything?" Ivan suddenly asked, with a slightly maniacal look in his eye.

"What do you mean?" Sheba asked, finally turning to look at him again.

"Have you searched here?" he answered, returning the gaze.

"I told you, I've..."

"No, I mean in the crater."

"Huh?"

"Well, I assume that this has something to do with everything else around here. Maybe there's something in it!"

"Ivan, it's just a big empty hole. What could it possibly have to do with anything? It's probably where some Adept caused a huge explosion to protect the villagers or something."

"But you don't know that for sure," he replied, still with the same look. "You never know what you'll find until you look. Come on!"

Ivan leapt into the crater and landed on the nearby sloped edge. He turned and reached his arm out, motioning to Sheba. "Let's go!"

Suddenly, her usual demeanor seemed to return and she grinned back. "Why not!" she exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and jumping in from where she sat. The two then spread out and began looking around the large circle of dirt to see if anything other than insects were there.

As expected, there was nothing of any interest inside of the shallow pit. They spent about an hour checking things out. Not even a sign of anything being hidden in the ground could be seen. Ivan was right. It was a crater.

It became quite obvious that they were not going to come up with anything to help Sheba figure out what the Sanctum was. They had worked their way to the easternmost part and now were getting ready to walk back to the other side.

"We'd better get going," Ivan said once he was positive that he had just wasted his time. "The others are probably wondering where we went. This sure is one big crater. ...Sheba? Sheba?"

Ivan suddenly noticed that he was not getting an answer, nor was the other Jupiter Adept any where within his line of sight. He turned around and noticed her a little ways off in the distance, standing on the lower edge of the south eastern slope and staring at a point on the ground.

"Did you find something?" he asked, running over and looking at where she was. However, it seemed like any other spot in there, smooth soil that hid nothing. Sheba continued to look at it, remaining quiet and still.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at her. It was then he noticed that she had an odd, far away look on her face. He waved his hand in front of her face, her eyes remaining unblinking upon the spot in the ground.

"Earth to Sheba!" he exclaimed, trying to catch her attention. "What's wrong? Why are you..."

Just then, her eyes widened and she began softly saying unintelligible words.

"Sheba!" Ivan exclaimed, trying to get her to stop whatever she was doing but to afraid to shake her lest touching her would hurt the situation.

Sheba continued in her dazed state for about a minute or so. Then, as abruptly as it had began, she stopped and returned to just staring at the spot, breathing heavily, for a moment.

Suddenly, she closed her eyes and fell forward.

"Woah!" Ivan cried, leaping to grab her before she hit the ground. He knelt down, still holding on to her, and tried to support her so he could see her face. She appeared to be unconscious and in a lot of pain due to her quick intakes of breath.

"Sheba?" he exclaimed, trying to snap her out of it. "What is it, Sheba! Are you okay?"

Her eyelids barely seemed to try and open, but she put her hands to her head and writhed in pain. "Help me, Ivan," she finally whispered, still in a similar state.

"What's wrong!" he exclaimed, not sure what to do and still holding her up.

"I..." she began, but her voice was barely coming out and seemed to be a strain. "Help!"

"Oh man, what do I do?" he thought. "I'm not sure how to help her, but I don't want to leave her by herself to go find someone else!" Ivan desperately looked around to see if something had magically appeared that would help the situation, but the crater was still as bare as ever.

"Hey!" a voice suddenly said. Ivan looked toward the east and saw Isaac running in, apparently coming back from his walk. "What's going on!"

"I don't know," Ivan answered, sounding worried and frustrated. "We were looking around in here to see if there was anything that had to do with the Sanctum and stuff, and suddenly she started staring at that spot and saying something and then she passed out!"

Isaac thought for a moment and then rushed off into Contigo. "What are you doing!" Ivan exclaimed.

"Getting someone to help!" he called back. "Stay here and make sure Sheba's okay."

"What else am I supposed to do?" he muttered, still holding on to the girl who seemed to be calming down but was still unconscious. "What could have happened?"

AN: Hey, things are finally getting interesting! ...Again, lol. Heh, I made Ivan so weird. But again, it's just how I'm doing things. This is my big, epic adventure story. I hope. Frankly, I still haven't planned in detail. I just wanna get these fixed and then hopefully I will. Or at least a brief summary to help me.