I'm back!!!

Sorry for not updating so long! Your patience is rewarded with an extra long chapter! (I think it is longer than the others…)

Thanks, all my faithful reviewers!!! ^_^ This means a lot to me!

Okay, here is Chapter 5!!!

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Chapter 5

"Hey, Will, isn't this dangerous, walking in the darkness like this?" I asked. It was barely anything to be seen, and strange, unfamiliar noises reached our ears from different directions. Will and I had our hands clasped together and were watching our surroundings intently. We didn't want to be surprised by monsters again…

"Even if we could make light, I don't think it would be wise." He answered quietly. "We would be easily visible for all monsters in this area…"

"But maybe our Djinn can help us! Eight eyes see more than four…" We put our Djinn on standby, and they agreed to help us keeping watch for enemies. Unfortunately for us, they appeared in the usual bright flashes of psynergetic light, which immediately attracted two wandering slimes…

"Here they come…" Will whispered, removing his hand from mine. "And we still have no weapons!" I was painfully aware of that, too. "How are we going to attack them? I'm not gonna try if the stuff they are made from is acidic…"

"Ha, I'll show them!" Will said, running up against one of the slimes and kicked out at it. The gelatinous matter they consisted of was more solid than it had seemed, because the slime was thrown back a few feet instead of being splattered into little pieces of jelly. The slime immediately started slithering towards Will again, who retreated to my side. "They are pretty slow," He said, "We could try to run…"

"…right into the next enemy, who might be stronger, no thanks!" I said and aimed a kick at the other monster, trying to mimic Will's technique, but the slime curled up into a ball, and I was barely able to change the course of my attack, avoiding hitting one of the spikes on its back.

The first slime meanwhile closed in on Will again. "You want more?" he asked, approaching it for another kick. The slime however chose to shoot some blue liquid at Will, which hit him on the feet. He barely managed to keep standing. "That's enough!" he shouted, raising his hands above his head: "Jupiter!!!"

Gas, who had sat on his shoulder, became a beam of light which shot skywards. A second later a huge Jupiter Djinni soared down again. It looked different from Gas and seemed to consist of psynergy only. It shot several soaring wind waves at the two enemies, focussing on the uninjured one. Then it disappeared, splitting into three circles of purple light, which faded away.

The slimes, which had been severely slashed by the Summon, apparently couldn't keep their form anymore and dissolved, the green liquid seeping away into the ground. I went to check the "corpses" and came back with eight gold pieces and some leaves, which appeared to be herbs. "They seem to know the good stuff from the bad." Will said, sniffing at them. There was obviously no trace of jelly left on them. Will pocketed them as well as the coins. Then he noticed there was no comment to his statement. "Hey Gas, where are you?" he shouted. "Strange, he should be back by now…"

"He's recovering from being summoned." Bubble said. "You didn't know that and yet you were able to summon?"

"I did know he'd have to recover," Will answered, searching mentally for his Djinni, "but I thought he'd still be there!"

"He will come back and set himself to you, but until then he won't be there to speak with you." Bubble explained.

"That's the reason why you can't trade Djinn when they are in recovery mode, I guess…" Kara contemplated.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to cope without him for a while, then." He said, then bent close to me, whispering: "Can you believe I miss the little bugger already?"

I smiled. "I can imagine… But now let me tend to your feet…"

"Oh right, I almost forgot. I have no feeling in them anymore…" he said as he plopped down to check them.

"That attack isn't known under the name 'Bone Chiller' for naught…" I retorted, examining them. There wasn't any sort of physical damage, but they were very cold, barely above zero. "You were lucky. If they had really frozen up, that would have been quite painful…" I cast Ply on him, healing his feet as well as some of his physical exhaustion. "Wow, not only my feet are better!" He said, amazed.

"I would think so!" I snorted. "Or do you believe your feet alone can take 100 HP of damage?!"

"I don't think I have 100 HP altogether!" he replied. "We have a good deal of training to do before we can defeat the enemies around here without getting hurt each time…"

"Then we better get started!" I said, looking out for enemies as we walked on. But it seemed that no more monsters wanted to suffer the same fate as the two slimes.

Finally, we reached the entrance of the town. There was no wall, but two steep plateaus on either side left only a little passage through which one was supposed to enter the town. I could see a watchtower with a bell hanging on the top. It was situated on the left-side ledge next to the entrance. "I know where we are!" Will said excitedly. "This is Vault!!! See, over there is the mountain where you get Sap! And that must be the mayor's house! This is the back entrance of the town!"

I wanted to enter immediately, but Will stopped me: "There's something wrong here." He whispered, looking around warily. "It's just a feeling, but I'm certain there is some ugly sort of surprise waiting for us here…"

"That must be some of your Jupiter powers coming through!" Bubble whispered. "Don't take this lightly! Premonitions like this one can save your life, even if they merely consist of an uneasy feeling."

"Let's be extra careful then. I'd say we take an alternate route." he proposed. We went past the tower, but instead of going straight to the middle of the town where the inn was, we went up the stairs to our right. We clasped our hands together. This path feels safe. Let's go around the town and try to find the source of the danger! Will said telepathically.

There was no light in any of the houses, the inn being the only exception. Will checked the crate next to the mayor's house, but didn't find anything (of course). But he didn't want to give up already. "Will, quit it!" I said impatiently, as he checked the pile of wood behind them. "You never can search them in the game, but luckily this is reality!" he said, reaching behind the other one. "Hey, there's something here!" Will said all of a sudden. He stretched his arm even more, and finally pulled out his hand again. I gasped: In his palm there was a decent amount of gold pieces, as well as a ring. He handed the stuff to me, saying: "There's more, I'll just get the rest."

"What do you think your doing?!" a deep voice suddenly said behind us. We stood up, alarmed, and I quickly put the stuff in my pocket to have my hands free. I immediately recognized the person in front of us: "You're one of Dodonpa's thieves!" It was one of the men who had attacked Isaac and his friends when they searched for Ivan's lost Shaman's Rod. Later, they had pursued Isaac's party to wreak revenge on them, but they ran into Felix' group and were defeated again. Leaving a pair of Golden Boots behind, they had run off, never to be seen again… at least that's what I had thought up to now…

"Criminals always return to the scene of the crime, huh?" Will asked boldly.

"Hey, who told you I am a thief?!" the guy asked, outraged. Then he realized his own mistake. "Oh well," he said, "you seem to have found my lair anyway. This is gonna be a bit cruel, but I don't think I can just let you leave…" he said, drawing his dagger.

"Do you happen to have another pair of these boots, just in case you lose, you know?" I asked, trying to provoke him. Angry people make mistakes, that's commonly known…

"How the hell do you know – ah, whatever. You don't look remotely as tough as Isaac and Felix, both of which you obviously know! And for your information, I don't have more boots like those! They were quite unique, too bad we had to leave them behind… But yours seem to be rather nice, too…" he said, eyeing Will's sneakers.

Will had meanwhile picked up a stick of wood for defense and positioned himself diagonally in front of me. "I warn you." He said. "Now you can still leave. You won't stand a chance against us. We have the same powers as the warriors you've faced before!"

"You're bluffing!" the thief sneered. "You don't even know how to wield a weapon properly! Come on, you loudmouth! Show me what you've got!" He assumed a fighting stance. "Since I'm feeling generous today, you may deal the first blow! Go ahead and attack me!"

Will sighed. "I wanted to avoid any ugliness, but you leave us no choice… Kara, would you please be so kind?" He stepped aside to clear the line of fire between me and the bandit, speaking to me in my mind: A Mercury Summon should be enough to show this guy we're not bluffing!

"Are you such a coward that you need the help of a GIRL to fight your battles for you?!"

Fury arose inside of me. "Are you implying that girls are to weak to fight scum like you?! Sorry, friend, but you just earned yourself some extra humiliation, 'cause I'm going to take you on alone!!" I exchanged a look with Will. He seemed a bit worried, but nodded and gave me his piece of wood. Then he leant down against the wall in a provoking pose and started twiddling his thumbs.

"You seem to think this is a game…" the thief said. "Let me tell you it isn't. Your life is on stake here!! I make you an offer: Give that stuff back now, and you may go unharmed."

"I offer you the same thing." I said calmly. "I take it you didn't like being in prison the last time here. Leave now and go back to Lunpa or wherever you're from!"

The thief blinked. "You've got some courage, I have to admit that. But that won't help you in battle! Let's see if you can even hurt me!"

I looked at the stick in my hand, then threw it away. "For someone like you, I don't even need a weapon!" I said, putting all contempt I could muster in my voice. "I've had enough, here comes!" I raised my arms above my head and cried: "Mercury!!!"

The Djinni on my shoulder shot upwards in a beam of light. The bandit didn't seem to see it, though. Of course not! I reminded myself. Ordinary people can't see psynergy!

A second or so later the huge Mercury Djinni suddenly dropped down and shot four jets of water at the thief, who had no clue about what was going on and was hit full force. He was slammed hard against the ground, but quickly stood up again. He was clearly having problems and was struggling against the weight of his soaked clothes. The large Djinni shone blue once more and dissolved into three circles of light. At the same time, there was a purple flash, and Gas was set to Will again.

"So you haven't lied about those powers…" The thief said, barely being able to stand. "But I'm not giving up yet!!" In one swift movement, he threw his dagger. I jumped aside, but I was hit in the left shoulder. White-hot pain shot through my body and I broke down, my hand moving up to the wound in a reflex.

The thief grinned malevolently. "Hah, I knew you weren't real warriors! Now you wish you hadn't been so cocky, huh?"

Knowing it was my only chance, I gripped the hilt of the dagger, gritted my teeth – and pulled. I let out a shriek of pain, but immediately cast Ply on me. A second later the wound had completely closed.

Will had sprung up in shock when I had gone down. "Kara!!!" I stood again, pretending to be still injured. "I'm fine!" I said, watching the bandit warily. "Don't interfere, this is my fight!"

Will answered mentally: You've just healed yourself, right? Are you still hurt?

Don't worry, I'm pretending. I don't want to catch another of these daggers…I answered. Guys like this one tend to have always more than one…

Alright then, go ahead, but be extra careful! He moved back and continued watching the battle. I could feel he didn't like the idea of being unable to help me, but he knew I had to go on after what I had said.

I let my left arm dangle down limply. I didn't want to take more hits like this one, so I decided to play it the safe way. "Don't think you've won already!" I said aloud, trying to buy some time while I was concentrating for my next move. "You may have injured me, but you're not done yet!"

"You can barely stand! Give up already!" he said.

"No way!!! Here, taste this!" I lifted my right arm, releasing my psynergy: "Frost!!!"

Blue psynergetic light gathered and materialized into a layer of ice, enveloping the thief's feet. He lost balance and fell, cutting his feet pretty badly. The ice broke and vanished, leaving the enemy on the ground, panting.

"Will, I need your help now, we've got to tie him up!" I said, walking towards the felled thief cautiously. But I seemed to have underestimated my enemy as well: Suddenly he grabbed my right arm and pulled me down, trying to wrest the dagger from my hand. Quickly, I tried to switch the weapon to my left arm, quitting faking the injury. I succeeded and held the tip of the blade against his throat. His squirming stopped immediately. "No wrong movements now!" I warned him. "Will, we have to tie him up somehow!" I said.

"But with what?" he asked. "I'm not gonna make a knot into my link cable!!!"

"What about… not tying him up at all?" I asked Will, a mischievous grin on my face. I sent him a mental picture of myself, pounding the thief on the head with a piece of wood (from behind, of course). "Go ahead." he said, suppressing an evil grin.

"You're not going to tie me up?" Mr. Thief said hopefully. "Nope." I said. "Will, would you kindly lead him down these stairs?"

Will did so, and I quickly grabbed one of the bulkier firewood pieces, hiding it behind my back as I walked down the stairs behind them.

"How did you do that with your arm?" Mr. Thief asked all of a sudden. "From one moment to another, it wasn't hurt anymore!"

"I think we might actually share that secret with you, if you promise never to steal something again." I said, positioning myself behind him.

Mr. Thief nodded solemnly. "I swear by the seven tools of the bandit that I am never going to steal something again. There! Now will you tell me?"

"Alright, I believe you." I said, imitating someone using Mind Read on him, then making a gesture of someone throwing up. Will, who stood in front of Mr. Thief and had watched the scene barely managed to stay quiet while he was shaking with silent laughter. But our surroundings were pretty dim; Mr. Thief was, too, so everything went unnoticed.

"Now listen closely." I said to him. "The key is focussing your willpower! You need to close your eyes and concentrate, while you repeat in your mind: 'I want to feel better, I want to feel better…' you get the idea? Come on, try it out now."

Mr. Thief closed his eyes, muttering: "I want to feel better, I want to feel better…" Will turned away cautiously and –

WHAMMMMM!!!!!

He was lying on the ground, a nice lump forming on the backside of his skull. I threw the piece of wood away. "Hehehe, that was fun. Now let's see what else this guy is carrying…"

We found two more daggers, hidden in his sleeves, which Will took (I had kept the one he had thrown at me), a pouch with a decent amount of gold in it, and finally some sort of disc with a hole in the middle, an inch in diameter and apparently made from some sort of whitish mineral or crystal. I could feel a strange power residing in the object.

Suddenly there was a blue flash, and Bubble was set to me again. Wow, seems like I missed the best part! he said, reading from my memories what had happened the last few minutes. But what have you found there? Let me out please, I've got to take a look at this!

I did so and he appeared on my shoulder in another flash of light. I held the piece up before him, and he examined it. "This seems to be a psynergy mineral! It's a special stone that bestows a new kind of psynergy to whoever carries it around! I wonder how the thief got this? Now let me see… This obviously is a Jupiter psynergy… Give it to Will."

I gave it to Will, who put Gas on standby and showed him the piece of white crystal. "This is the Detect Disc!!! Use the Detect psynergy, and you can feel the presence of living things in your surroundings. You could use it either to avoid or to seek out enemies when wandering around in the wilderness!"

"How useful!" Will said. "This explains how the thief could know we were there! These items work for non-Adept-people as well! You remember all those incidents when people, trees and other things got hit with them in the game?"

"Of course!" I said. "C'mon, let's go get the rest of the stuff!"

We went back to the mayor's house and picked up the remaining loot, which Will simply put into the pouch as well. The Detect Disc he put into his pocket however, so that could use it when he felt like it. "I'd try it now," he said, "but I'm just tired. Let's turn in for the day."

"But what are we going to do with this guy?" I asked Will.

He shrugged. "Hmm… guess we can't let him lie around, 'cause he'll wake up and run away. I don't know. The only things that are probably open that late are the inn and the sanctum…"

"Let's get him to the sanctum then." I said. Each of us took an arm and so we dragged him to the wooden double doors on the west side of town, went in and closed them behind us again.

"Welcome, weary wanderers. What aid do you seek?" The Great Healer greeted us in the traditional way. Will had to suppress a giggle, and I quickly jumped in: "We need a place for this unrighteous fellow to stay over the night…" I said. "Maybe also a little longer…"

The Great Healer stared. "This is one of Dodonpa's henchmen!!!"

"Indeed he is." I said, trying to imitate Alex' style once more. Will pretended to check on the passed-out villain so he could hide his laughter. "He apparently sneaked around the village, trying to find some unwary victims…" I told him how we stumbled upon the "lair" of the thief and the encounter thereafter.

"…and so we had to, uh… convince him to abandon his evil ways." I concluded.

"Seems he was pretty stubborn, that one…" The Great Healer said, examining the battered criminal. "I believe we have a nice, comfortable prison cell for him. He even won't get wet there when it rains, assuming he stands in the correct corner, of course… What about you two? You have been injured?" He looked at my previously wounded shoulder in concern.

"I have already healed that, it's merely the cloth…"

The Great Healer lifted his arms up. Suddenly my dress glowed white for a moment. When it stopped, the blood had gone and the cloth wasn't torn anymore. "Consider it a small token of appreciation for catching this thief." he said with a smile.

"Wow, thanks a lot!" I said in amazement. "How did you do that?"

"It's a psynergy called Restore." The Great Healer explained. "It is normally used to remove status ailments one sometimes receives in battle."

"Could you teach me that psynergy?" I asked. "I'm a Mercury Adept myself, so I should be able to learn it!"

"I knew that you are Adepts when you entered. Even people who are not linked to the elements can see your Djinn. You should be aware of that. About this psynergy… It is difficult to explain in words how to use it…"

I was not about to give up yet. "What about telepathy?" The Great Healer looked confused. "My friend here can connect our minds using his Mind Read psynergy…"

"Hmm… That might be worth a try."

I took Will's hand, opening my mind for him. Will concentrated, and after a few seconds I could feel a third presence: The Great Healer. In a few thoughts he explained the use of the Restore psynergy to me.

"Thank you!" I said happily. "This will save us a lot of trouble. I didn't cherish the thought of buying new clothes every two days…"

"It's the least I could do for you. Really, you remind me of another group of Adepts who passed through here quite some time ago, catching this bandit and his two fellow thieves… You know, there might actually be something you could do for us… I suggest you get some rest at the Inn, and then come to me again tomorrow."

We thanked him again, left the sanctum and walked the few steps to the inn. Finally we were going to get some rest…

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Did you like it? The next update will probably take some time… I don't push myself, when I'm not inspirated, I can't write something good and I won't write then. At the moment I am inspirated, but typing and making up the story takes its time…

When Chapter six is released, I'll send the new original file to the ppl who requested it!

So long, Quizer