The 8BTFreek: Since you made him up, I feel obligated to tell you that Adrian's status has been upgraded from Very Minor Character to Semi-Important Character. As for the Weird Al stuff, read on and find out.
AmandaZgreat: "Anticipation makes you long for something more, therefore increasing your enjoyment when it finally arrives"; not very helpful, but kind of true.
You don't giggle either? That's a relief; I thought it was just me. Laugh? Yes. Chortle? Yes. Giggle? No. ::shrugs::
I knew I should've named Andrew Anthony!
There's a lot more to Oliver than just his task to kill Picard; those two have history. And that history's going to be brought up soon. How? Through the magic of flashback of course.
Alexditto: You think things have already taken a surprising turn? Just you wait and see!
MiraiEvo: ::sugar-high:: Happy belated birthday and thanks for the cupcake! Mmm, cupcake… I've been planning on how Math and Sheena will interact for quite some time now; this is going to be fun. Ok, so what if "Jenna, Isaac, and the Djinn didn't"? What makes you think that they won't?
TemplarofNi: Ah, the DS… And coming out this year too! Anywho, when you think about it, I can't kill Saturos and Menardi: they're already dead!
Potato Man: You know what's really creepy? I was already using periods to separate my sections! And no, I'm not doing to do that; there's a couple of people who have me on Author Alert, so if I were to update with the same chapter twice, that would be kinda cruel. The former and latter thing wasn't meant to be confusing though… Wait a second, I just responded to your review backwards! Excuse me, I'm going to get some sleep now.
WildfireDreams: Updating…
End of Response Section
Hello again! I'm starting to wonder why I keep writing little messages here as I don't really have anything to say. For crying out loud, most of you have probably skipped over this already! Anyway…
Warning: Do not become confused during the first scene of this chapter. If you fail to recognize the character, hit the back button several times or use the indigo bar-scroll-thingy until you reach chapter 10 and scroll down to Picard's Senate Meeting.
Now that that's taken care of, on with Chapter 17. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: Rallalon does not own Golden Sun, any of its characters, items or locations. Nor does she own parchment, Lord Adrian Murray(because he belongs to The 8BTFreek), Lord Globule Aquae(because he belongs to Yoshimi Takahashi), the sound effects of someone falling down a hill, an idiot(except for when she is one; even then, she still owns herself), four years, stubborn people who cannot throw(once again excluding herself), or cave-ins. However, she did make up the lighting-sticks.
………
He awoke with a start and sprung out of bed faster than he had ever done before. Bare feet met cold stone, forcing him to leap onto the rug with a small yelp. Hurriedly, he picked his way to his desk, his eyes trying unsuccessfully to pierce the surrounding blackness. In a shadowy corner his dark room, he groped about for parchment and a writing tool in a drawer of his desk. Only once he had found them did he think of lighting a lamp.
Once again he groped about, holding the memory of his dream close, lest he lose it. Dreams never lasted long after one woke and he had the unpleasant feeling he'd want to remember every last detail of this one.
His hand landed on the lamp and he quested for the lighting-sticks that should be near it. Where…? Aha!
He took one of the short segments of wood and willed a trace amount of his Psynergy into it before quickly withdrawing it. The lighting-stick burst aflame at one end, illuminating the young appearing face of Lord Adrian Murray.
He hastily lit the lamp, blew out the stick, and discarded it. He look the piece of charcoal, began to sketch his dream and was forced to split its over-lapping elements into two parts as best he could.
Somehow he knew beyond doubt that this wasn't a nightmare brought on by the stress of his new appointment as Senator, despite the conspiracy he had landed himself him. Plot, he reminded himself as the flickering light cast his distorted shadow on the opposite wall, changing his thin frame into that of a stronger, brutish man. There needs to be at least three people to conspire, he clarified to himself. This wasn't brought on by the possible death of Lemuria's king either, although that was, in part, what he had dreamt of. No, not at all. This was what it meant to be a Water Seer.
He drew everything as well as he could before he scribbled the rest down. He would show it to Lord Globule Aquae. Aquae would know what to do. Despite his absentminded tendencies and him being the Keeper of Records by default, Aquae knew things, he was smart, and he would know what to do.
At least, Adrian thought so.
The impatience of youth had not yet left him, so the Lead Ambassador(also by default) rapidly dressed by the wavering light, and after a small mishap with his left boot, practically dashed outside and to Aquae's library.
"Aquae! Aquae, are you here?" he called, holding up his lamp, striding along the row between the huge shelves that reached up two stories before becoming part of the ceiling. Aquae was nearly always here, translating this, Restoring that, reading something, filing something else. He might've been the Record Keeper by default, but he did take his job seriously, something Adrian would never have an opportunity to do.
Head Ambassador? Ha! How could he be the head one when he was the only one? When there was nowhere he could be ambassador to?
"Aquae!"
"Are you calling me or my wife?" Globule Aquae asked from behind him.
"Don't do that!" Adrian exclaimed, whirling around to face the older Lemurian.
"Well," Aquae explained jokingly, "when you only use my last name, I can't really tell, now can I?"
Adrian shook his head ruefully, but allowed a smile to creep through. Aquae was a very… unique person. There were two great loves in the man's life: his wife and his library. It was a very good thing Lady Aquae wasn't a jealous woman; Adrian had the feeling she was number two.
"So, Adrian," Aquae began, leaning against the wooden side of a case, "what brings you here this time of… morning?"
"I…" Now that he got around to telling someone, he wasn't so sure it had been a vision and not just a nightmare. His ears reddened slightly as he realized that he could be creating an ocean out of a puddle. "I had… a dream."
Aquae's eyebrow rose, signifying that the man's curiosity had been activated. "I'm assuming you, being a Water Seer, believe it to be a vision." At Adrian's nod, Aquae continued, "And the parchment you're carrying would be the visual part of it, correct?"
"Mostly," Adrian admitted. "But you how my artistic skills are."
"Hmm…" Aquae wordlessly took the papers and studied them for a moment before rolling them up again and striding purposefully towards the heavy table in the back, behind the many shelves. Adrian followed and lit an addition lamp, one already in Aquae's working space.
Aquae spread out the rolls of parchment, anchoring each with a small but dense rock on each corner. "So your dream was of two scenarios, juxtaposed? And the top sheet shows the differing point?"
"No and yes. I drew them side by side, but in my dream they were overlapping. I separated them as best I could."
"And what makes them differ?"
"Well," Adrian explained, pulling out the last sheet of paper, "in both Alchemy was unleashed across the world, creating Adepts not just in Lemuria, but everywhere. In both, a golden sphere of light, like a sun, really, descended on a hilltop in some place called…" He bit his tongue, trying to remember. "Some place called 'Valley, Idaho'. And there was a person there who had no knowledge of Psynergy or Alchemy, but in one…" Adrian shuddered with the memory. "They… absorbed the ball, not really understanding what it was." He tried to surpress another shudder. No one should have power like that. It was stronger than even King Piers but with a completely different feel. King Piers' Psynergy felt like a calm salty sea, unchanging in appearance, but full of waves and unexpected currents, all full of the wisdom and compassion of a man who had seen far more of the world than he had ever wanted to; the "sun" by itself was magnificent, but when it went inside a person… And what that person would do with that power…
Aquae pondered this a moment, absentmindedly stroking his pet caline. Apparently, the caline had two different ancestors in its past, making it a cross-breed between… Now what were they called…? Oh, yes, cat and dog.
"What happened in the other one?" Aquae finally asked. "The ball was there as well?"
Adrian nodded. "But it disintegrated into… motes. The motes were so small you couldn't see them with the naked eye. Then the motes zoomed off every-which-way and went into people, giving them small amounts of Psynergy. It's definitely a better alternative."
"And where, no, when does it begin to differ?"
Adrian swallowed and pulled out the sheet had been originally the top sheet. "Here."
The sheet, divided in two by a dark charcoal line, showed a group of people ontop of some tower with dragon statues on both sides. On the left drawing, however, it showed one of the group, a man, facing a floating ball that was absent on the other. Behind him was another man. Both were Lemurian.
He took a breath and continued. "When Oliver kills King Piers."
………
"Ahh!!!"
Crack, snap-snap, crack, snap! Crackcracksnap-snap, snapcrack!
Thud!!!
"Matthew! Felix! You two all right?"
Winded and scratched, Matthew struggled to take a few breaths before replying, "Jen, we just fell down a thorn covered hill; how do you think we feel?" What happened, Felix?
Andrew used Teleport, Felix said while casting Cure over the many lightly bleeding cuts, and we happened to pop up where there wasn't ground. Actually, he corrected himself, there was ground and we appeared several feet above it. Picard was right in telling us to hold on.
Um, yeah. Holding on was something Matthew hadn't done.
"Do you think you can get back up?" Picard yelled down.
"Dunno! It's pretty steep!"
The remainder of the group was atop of the hill in a little clearing. The side Matthew had tumbled down was about twenty feet high and roughly a 60-degree climb. And then there were the brambles. If he was going to climb up, he'd have to hold on to something and the briars, the only available thing, were out of the question.
"I'm sorry!" Andrew hollered, probably embarrassed that his first Teleporting effort had ended up the way it had.
"We're fine!" Matthew hollered back. "Alex, do you think you can Warp us back up?"
Xander's eyes flickered over the dense foliage and the over-hanging trees. "If you don't mind me landing in a tree."
"What's the problem?" Gary asked. "Couldn't you just climb down?"
"It's not that simple," Picard explained. "Part of the reason we need a visual to be able to Teleport is so we can arrive safely. Alex isn't worried about having to climb down; he worried about the wood overlapping his flesh."
Gary gave a slight shudder. Matthew could nearly make out him saying something like: "Weirder and weirder."
"Why don't we just starting going to the Lighthouse? The slope might get less steep further on," suggested Isaac.
"There is a second path," Andrew added.
"Felix?" Picard called, asking for his approval.
"I don't see anything wrong with that. Neither does Matthew. Just make sure we don't loss contact with each other."
In short order, Echo, who was on Standby for Felix, was riding on Ian's head, and Flint, on Standby to Isaac, was perched on Matthew's right shoulder. Because both could speak in human languages, it was like having Djinn walkie-talkies. Also, Ether, who had shared the dream with Andrew, would be guiding Felix/Matthew. It seemed they had dreamt of two paths, the one for the group and the one that was apparently for Felix/ Matthew.
"You could've warned us this would happen," Matthew muttered to the purple creature riding atop his left shoulder. The Djinni chortled and Flint translated that Ether hadn't known this would happen, just that there were two paths.
Once that was done, Andrew pointed out the direction for the main group while Felix followed the Jupiter Djinni. Matthew just rode along in the back of his mind, concentrating on the approaching problem.
He didn't want to find Sheba; Felix wanted to very much. Matthew had no interest in a girl four years younger than him; Felix… well, his interest was four years younger, but not really a girl anymore. Maybe the age difference didn't matter back whenever it was when he was alive, but personally, Matthew didn't care for the idea of a romantic relationship with an eighth-grader. Because the relationship between their ages was so far the same it had been in Felix's scenario, it was fairly safe to assume Sheba's incarnation was about thirteen or so. Matthew was seventeen.
And there was a big difference in those four years.
From up ahead, behind a tree, Ether gave an excited peep. Flint's eyebrows/ears perked up.
"What is it?" Math whispered to the elemental creature.
"Figure it out for yourself," Flint responded quietly.
He could do that. Just where were they in the world? What was the local wildlife? Was it a bear? Some poisonous snake that would bite him and render him dead in moments? Or one that would just bite him to hold him while it wrapped its coils around his chest and started squeezing? Or wolf pack that would run him down until he could run no more and then go for his throat?
Would you stop that? Felix demanded. That was a happy peep Ether gave, not a danger warning.
If you say so… Matthew said dubiously.
He cautiously made his way around the tree and surrounding shrubbery, trying not to make a sound. And there, sitting on a small boulder, a small bag over her shoulder, was Miss Violet Eyes.
Satornil had teased him before this weird adventure had started about the tidbits of bad poetry he had written about a girl he kept dreaming about, a blond beauty with violet eyes. Or green. Or a bit of both. But frankly, it didn't really matter what Miss Violet Eyes looked like. It was just that in those dreams that felt like memories, he knew her and she knew him. And what was really weird was that he liked her, a figment of his imagination. She wasn't real, but he liked her anyway.
But there she was, petting Ether, smiling as if she would burst from happiness. Real. Not imaginary.
She looked up and an older spirit gazed out through her eyes. She grinned and said with a laugh, "You look… different with so little hair, Felix."
She was Sheba's reincarnation.
Flude.
………
Andrew trailed after King Piers slowly, deeply ashamed. Why couldn't he seem to do anything right? The one person whose opinion meant the world to him only saw him when he was messing something up. It got really annoying.
But he would keep trying.
First, he needed to apologize for the mishap. He opened his mouth and promptly closed it again. What to say?
Echo for one never though about what he was going to say. In fact, he was still singing all the songs he had learned from Ian, complete with background music. " –stuck a funnel in my mouth and stuck me to the wall and force-fed me nothing but sourcrout until I was 26 and a half years old. That's when I swore that someday, someday I would get out of the basement and travel to a magical, faraway place where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer and the towels are oh so fluffy!" The Djinni paused and thankfully stopped "singing". "Hey! Felix and Matthew found Sheba! They found Sheba! Breath, Breath! They found Sheba!"
The Jupiter Djinni peeped something to the Venus Elemental, received a chirping response, and flew off in the direction Felix and Matthew had taken.
Because of Andrew. His mood sunk another notch. He just so needed to do something right!
"What is it?"
Andrew hurriedly smiled and responded to his king in(what he hoped was) a cheerful manner. "Nothing of import, milord." Quickly, he turned away, lest King Piers see through his incompetent facade. It fooled nearly everyone else, but King Piers wasn't just anyone.
"Picard."
Andrew turned back around. "What, milord?"
King Piers had turned as well, so he was walking backwards, trusting the Djinn or one of his companions to tell him if he was about to walk into a tree or something of the like. "That's my name. Use it."
Andrew didn't know how to respond. So he didn't.
The older man looked about, his gaze passing over the foliage and the sky, the people and Djinn. A small simile played about his lips. "We're having an adventure, Andrew. Not one grand or bold. Not one with monsters to fight. One that will last from anywhere from the four days it will take to light the Beacons to years as we sort out the reincarnation thing."
Still Andrew gave no response. If he said anything, he'd have to address his king, and in doing so, he would either disobey King Piers or he would do something equally against his nature. A child did not call his father by the father's first name; Andrew did not call King Piers "Picard".
"It's odd looking back…" King Piers reminisced. "The beginning of it all was so long ago, yet so much clearer than most of the rest… Sometimes I still have trouble seeing myself as a king. But sometimes… I can't see myself as anything else."
Andrew certainly didn't know what to make of that.
"You tend to remember people as you first met them, including yourself. Felix will always remain a restless spirit to me and Oliver a small boy tossing coins, unsuccessfully, into the fountain. You should have seen the pile of coins in there by the time he was done." He laughed softly, still slowly walking backwards. "In case you've ever wondered where the fountain gets its money from, that's where: stubborn people who can't throw."
"Not true!" Lord Crest called over his shoulder, interrupting him conversation with Dr Crade. The pair was up ahead of Andrew/behind King Piers. "And I can throw!"
"Oh yes, Oliver, now I remember: you did learn how to throw. It only took you two years!" King Piers chided.
Andrew looked at him, confused. King Piers might have been a rather cheerful person on the whole –he had to be or otherwise the stress of his occupation would get to him too badly –but he was never one for jests. And if it had only taken Lord Crest two years to learn to throw, then how could King Piers make fun? Two years wasn't very long at all.
King Piers laughed at his confused look, but not insultingly. It was more of laugh that made others want to laugh as well. It had been a very long time since Andrew had seen his liege so happy. "I feel young again, Andrew, and that I have not felt in quite some time. Oh, I should have brought you with us to Mercury Lighthouse!" His laughter faded. "I didn't mean for you to be left behind; I was just trying to make it so Oliver didn't miss us."
"And why is that, Picard?" the said lord asked.
"Because the lighting needs to be done now, even if the true need for it will only truly begin to emerge in several thousand years."
"Why not wait?" Lord Crest inquired. "And how is that the reason why you left me behind?"
Andrew gaped at him. Speaking thusly to the king!?
But it seemed King Piers truly was feeling younger and non-kingly. Instead of becoming slightly stern(King Piers didn't get angry; he became stern), he simply smiled, slightly amused by the other man's words. "You just showed me I was right, Oliver. I knew you'd protest it and therefore I tried to keep it from you until there was no choice but to continue. Now there's no choice, so I feel free to tell you."
Was it Andrew's imagination or did Lord Crest appear slightly abashed? No, it was something else… but what? Before Andrew could figure it out, Echo took it upon himself to once again burst into song, severely throwing off Andrew's concentration. "Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday to you! Well, it's time to celebrate your birthday. It happens every year. We eat a lot of broccoli and drink a lot of beer. You should be good and happy that there's something you can eat; a million people everyday are starving in the street!"
They call this music? Andrew thought, partly disturbed and partly amused.
"As for not waiting," King Piers continued over the Venus elemental, "it needs to be done and it can be done now. To wait would be to throw away what could be our last chance. Now I won't want to do that, would I?"
If King Piers said it was a good thing that needed doing, then by all means it would be done, Andrew concluded. However, he noticed that Lord Crest didn't appear all too sure.
"Though in hindsight, it seems I may have acted rashly when I decided to leave you behind."
A number of the Djinn chortled and Andrew had to try not to grin. A rash Lemurian! That had to be an oxy-moron, even if it could be regularly applied to King Piers.
"So you'll be taking us along from now on?" Lord Crest inquired.
The ruler of Lemuria nodded and Andrew nearly exploded with happiness. He wouldn't be left behind like a useless imbecile!
Lord Crest, however, just looked relieved.
………
"Hurry up already!" Of all the people that could've happened upon her, it just had to be him. Why, why, why?
"Where are we going?" the teenager demanded from behind her.
"Where else? Babi Lighthouse."
Matthew Gardner glowered at her, apparently having Felix agree that it made sense. Thankfully, the old Adept wouldn't be voicing any of his opinions aloud.
After a great deal of debate while walking, they had set up a deal. If the dead pair wouldn't talk or take control of the bodies or whatever and focus on keeping their feelings to themselves, then Sheena and Matthew would let them have mental contact, so long as they kept whatever it was that disembodied, dead spouses did. They would pretty much be taking turns every fifteen minutes from mental contact to non-contact.
Sheena wouldn't've minded to have Sheba maintain mental contact with Felix all the time if it hadn't included one little thing: physical contact. Sure, she and Matthew would just be holding hands, but he was all sweaty and ugh. The guy was rude, a complete stranger, four years older than her, and far better looking than she would've liked. He should've at least had a zit or something she could silently mock!
He noticed her staring at him and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Instead of looking away, or doing something else that would imply that she was embarrassed, she glared. He glared back.
The wind blowing gently through the trees seemed amazingly loud, as did the noise they made going through the underbrush.
"You two are getting along swimmingly," Flint piped up. Despite their glares, the Djinni continued, "Breath's on her way."
Sheena smiled. At last, something good was happening!
Then she noticed Matthew was staring at her, not glaring anymore, as if just realizing something. He opened his mouth as if to say something, seemed to think a moment about what that was, and finally decided on "Don't do that."
"Don't do what?" she demanded, her frown returning.
He seemed pleased with himself for some random reason. "Never mind," he replied, irritating her further. She couldn't stand it when someone had her feel as if she was being left out of something important. It was as if he was doing it on purpose!
Sheena realized something and she could've hit herself for being that stupid. Of course that was what he was doing! How could she think that he was anymore interested in her than she was in him! To her, the age difference made the other seem slightly intimidating and bumbling at the same time. To him, she must seem like a little girl!
Oh, now this was wonderful! She was starting to sympathize with him!
She sighed. This was going to be a long walk. A very long walk.
And so it was. Even when Breath finally arrived, things weren't made better. Sure, when she had greeted Breath, she was practically glowing. One Djinni had been awesome, but two? She couldn't stop smiling as she held the soft, content Djinni in her arms. She was so cute!
Then she had noticed Matthew pointedly not looking at her. Fine, he had been doing that before, but now he was resumed with a renewed vigor. But why?
He felt her gaze and met it, his cheeks gathering a slightly pink tinge before looking away again. "Would you stop doing that?!" he muttered under his breath.
Doing what? She still didn't know, but had he just…? No way. What, did he think she was smiling at him?
Oh.
Flude.
Yes, it was a very long walk. Extremely. An extremely lengthy trek. It was at least an hour before they reached the remains of Babi lighthouse, holding hands for the sake of their ancient counter-parts every fifteen minutes. Sheena could tell Sheba thought it wonderful how the Lighthouses had lasted this long, while Babi's little tower had pretty much deteriorated into ruble. All that was left was the ancient foundation Babi had ordered his lighthouse(it didn't deserve the capital L) built upon. It was quite well and good that nothing of the nasty man remained.
"Why'd you stop?" Matthew asked, clueless.
"We're here," she replied.
Matthew looked around at their surroundings. "All I see is pla–" He paused, listening to something Felix was saying. Wordlessly, he bent down and placed his hands on the forest floor. Loops of Psynergy, guided by Felix no doubt, surrounded him and Sheena could practically see his awareness stretching out, down the plants roots. "There's rock…" he mumbled with his eyes closed, "that has been worked. A long, long time ago… A passageway that's… well, it's almost open…" His expression made him look as if he were far away.
"A cave-in?" she asked, startled. Who knew a Venus Adept could scout out the layout of underground tunnels from just touching the dirt!
"Dunno… I think it has to be opened…"
"At Venus Lighthouse," Sheena finished. "Flint?"
"I'm already relaying the message," the Djinni said.
"Then you can add that we're going to go as far as we can, then wait for them to open up the door. Once they do that, we'll find the statue to push into place and they can join us from their end."
Flint looked at her doubtfully. How a Djinni could have such expression was beyond her. "Are you sure? There could be cave-ins while we're down there."
"You, Matthew and Felix can handle it." She turned her gaze to Matthew and demanded, "Can't you?" She was pleased to see Matthew was looking nervous. "Or haven't you found the opening."
"I've found it," he began cautiously, "but it'll be a challenge getting in. And then once we're away from the entrance, we wouldn't be able to see where we're going."
"You get the way open; I'll get the light." She hadn't exactly predicted that she'd be in need of a light, but she knew that she should be prepared. Anyway, she had been waiting for an opportunity to use a little skill she had figured out all on her own. Her grip on her bag tightened.
Matthew gave a non-committal sound, strode over to a tree, and stared at it with the beginnings of Psynergy rings floating up from his feet. What did he think he was doing? He was only looking at a tree bending and shaking in the wind.
Sheena abruptly realized there was no wind; the tree was doing that by itself. No, not by itself… by the will of Matthew!
The tree's leaves withered and fell, new branches drooped. What was the point of killing the tree? If it blocked the entrance, it'd still be blocking it!
Something shook in the ground, and Sheena watched, stunned, as the roots that peeked through the dirt visibly thickened. He was focusing the tree's life force to the roots!
The roots that showed at the base of the tree slowly moved aside and dirt tumbled in. Matthew's eyes rolled up in his head as soil fell into the widening hole. His Psynergy aura wavered and the rings were slower in coming yet faster in disappearing. Finally, as the echoes of a rock striking a dust covered floor was heard, Matthew's Psynergy gave out completely and the inexperienced Adept would've fallen in the hole he was just created had Sheena not pulled him back.
She might not have like him, but she didn't want him getting himself killed!
Despite her support, he collapsed to the ground, pale, sweating, and more than likely unconscious. Sheena knew what happened when an Adept past his or her limits; she had been so weak she couldn't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom without serious effort. So what if Matthew had succeeded in opening up the route! How would he use it in his condition? The idiot!
After a tense and slightly(but only slightly, mind you) worried minute, said moron made a noise that was rather similar to "Ughennff…" and tried to sit up. "Oww…" he wheezed, weakly putting a hand to his head. "You could've told me that would happen…" he grumbled. To Felix, most likely.
Sheena wasn't sure if she should be relieved or P.O.ed. Probably a bit of both.
But before she could decide to either ask if he was all right or insult him for his ignorance, if not stupidity, he looked up at her and asked for himself, "How's that light coming?"
Now the choice was if she should laugh or slap him. She was strongly leaning toward the latter, but knew Sheba wouldn't appreciate it. Felix might get mad, too. If he didn't burst out laughing, that was; she knew from Sheba that he had an… odd sense of humor when he chose to show it.
"I'll show you when we get down there," she stiffly said. If you can get down there, her eyes added.
Groggily, Matthew hoisted himself to his feet, probably with help from Felix, and attempted to walk to the hole. What resulted was more like a stubborn stagger, but, to his credit, he did get there. Using the roots like a ladder, he slowly descended until, with a roughish grin just daring her to follow, he disappeared.
Sheena made certain her bag wouldn't fall off and followed suit. Looking down from the top of the hole, the passageway below looked dim and menacing. Unsuccessfully surpressing a shudder, she slowly climbed down the roots that were, to her surprise, really shaped like a ladder. It galled her to admit it, but although Matthew had used up most of his energy, he had done a good job of it.
Down and down, far to slowly for her liking, she descended, sinking farther and farther away from sunlight. The damp smell of earth filled her nose. Finally, after what felt longer than it could've possibly been, her feet touched solid ground.
"Took you long enough."
Sheena tried to sense that Matthew was just as scared as she was of being underground in a chamber that could easily collapse at any moment. She failed. He was actually feeling so comfortable it surprised even him.
Personally, Sheena already longed for a breeze. And the air would just get stiller and staler the farther they went.
"You ok?" She could dimly make out his expression of concern.
"Fine," she snapped, her voice showing exposing far too much of her emotion.
"I'm not trying to be… you know. But I've got a cousin who used to be scared of the dark and one time when we were playing hide-and-go-seek, we got stuck inside a closet. She started shaking like that, too."
"I'm not –" But she found she was shaking. Thoroughly disgusted with herself, she stuck her bag under the faint beam of light shining through the hole, weaving through the roots. She rummaged through it carefully and pulled out a fragile object wrapped in tissues inside of a small cardboard box. She pulled it out, held it by its metal end and willed her Psynergy into it. More especially, she willed electricity into it.
The light bulb flared to life, illuminating the dreary passageway. Actually, it lit up the walls, the end of the dirty passage out of the bulb's reach. Their shadows danced on the walls as Sheena controlled how much energy she could afford to put into the bulb. Too little, far too little. The glow shrank as she reached a level she knew she could maintain for quite some time. And still the darkness extended in front of her and hovered closer behind, her body blocking the light from extending in backwards direction.
"Well…" Sheena said with a gulp, "we'd better get going."