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I'm still alive! Chapter six is finally ready!
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Chapter 6Remembering the words of the Great Healer, we set our Djinn, so nobody would see them, then entered the inn and closed the door behind us cautiously. The innkeeper stood behind the counter. I looked around curiously. Everything looked exactly like in the game. I wonder if the mint in that crate over there is still around…
Kara grinned. Why don't you look? Hehe… Will checked the wooden box… but didn't find anything!
I'll show you! I'll eat that mint all by myself, you'll see! I stepped forward and asked incidentally: "Nice inn, it is. I was wondering what is stored in all these crates and barrels…"
The innkeeper waved dismissively. "Nothing's in there, they're all empty. If you find anything, you can keep it, but I doubt it."
That's all I needed to hear. I walked over to the crate in question and opened it cautiously – and turned over to Kara, saying triumphantly: "Will found a mint!"
I took it out of the box. It was an oversized leaf, and it smelled like mint alright. I could feel it had some mysterious power stored inside. I thought for a moment, then rolled it up and gave it to Kara. "I could never eat it while you have nothing, so please take it."
"Thank you Will! You're so sweet!" she exclaimed, kissing me on the cheek. "But I don't want to use it now, either. Let's keep it until we have one for both of us!"
The innkeeper had obviously watched the scene and was now cursing himself under his breath. To cheer him up a little, I told him: "We would like a room, please."
"Alright. That comes to eight coins!" he said grumpily. Kara touched my shoulder, speaking to me telepathically: Hey Will, this goes by the number of beds, right?
I asked the innkeeper. He was irritated, but nodded. I could almost see the question mark bubble pop up over his head…
So what if we take only one…? Kara asked, sending me a picture of the two of us lying in a bed, clothes on, curled up against each other.
Oh wow, yeah, cool!!! Let's do it! I answered excitedly. Said aloud this would've sounded quite wrong, but our mental connection didn't allow for misunderstandings. It was clear between us that there would be no fulfilling of ancient prophecies tonight…
"One bed will do." I said, removing four coins from the bandit's pouch. "And don't look at me like that!" I added, "We know very well we are too young for what you're thinking!"
The innkeeper's face reddened. "First room on the right!" He quickly took the coins and waved us to go on up the stairs.
The upper floor, which was a big room with three beds in the GBA game, was separated into three rooms by means of moveable wall segments. We opened the door to the first room on the right (there were not even doors on the left, but never mind…) and went inside. The room was small, but quite cosy. There was a bed, big enough for the two of us to lie comfortably next to each other, a bedside table and a round table with two chairs. An extensive round carpet was in front of the bed.
As soon as the door was closed, I let myself fall down backwards onto the bed: "Aaah, REST!!!"
Kara shot me a strange look. "What's up?" I asked.
"You're acting as if it was you who fought the bandit!!" Kara said indignantly, then broke into a smile: "I'm rather exhausted, too! This was probably the most tiring day in my entire life!!" I nodded, sitting up again and removing my boots. "You don't get thrown into another world every day! I'm pretty sure, though, that we will learn to cope with all that travelling."
Kara nodded as she removed her boots as well. "We have to find Kraden. If someone can tell us how to return to our world, it'll be him!"
"Since Isaac and company went back to Vale after Mars Lighthouse, they can't be very far from here…" I said, lying down on the bed and pulling Kara down next to me. "Let's ask around town tomorrow…"
"Yeah, let's do that…" she murmured as I started caressing her back with my right arm, while stroking her face with my left. She nuzzled my neck, sending a pleasant shiver over my body. "To think that twelve hours ago, I didn't even know you…" she whispered, planting a kiss on my cheek. "Now I never want to be without you again…"
Warm happiness spread inside me and I answered: "Kara… the words 'I love you' do no justice to what I am truly feeling for you. This is beyond language…" I signalised her to climb upon me while continuing to caress her. She gently pressed her soft, warm body on mine and I let out an involuntary groan of delight.
"Sheesh… Quiet you…" Kara whispered, grinning. "The innkeeper might get the wrong idea!"
"Screw him…" I muttered sleepily as she buried her face in my neck. In this position we stayed, and I savoured every moment; how our bodies moved against each other with every single breath; how I could feel her beating heart through the layers of clothes; the heat of her body pressing on mine… All the time, she was there in my mind, and the knowledge she was taking the same pleasure out of this made me almost unbearably happy. I started pouring my emotions into her as well, becoming truly one in mind with her…
Suddenly there was a knock on our door. We both jumped horribly and got up, trying to calm down somewhat while we were walking to the door… We didn't make any noise, did we? I asked Kara confusedly. She shook her head as she positioned herself next to me. Wonder what's the matter then… I thought and opened the door.
On the other side stood a sleepy-looking girl with sky-blue hair. Her eyes widened in surprise when she realized there were two of us standing in front of her. "Whoops!! Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you, I didn't know –"
Kara interrupted her: "What's the matter?! You didn't knock to apologize, right?"
"Yes…" She rubbed her eyes. "Your psynergy doesn't let me sleep!"
"Psynergy?" I asked. "That means you're an adept, huh? But we didn't use psynergy. Not besides Mind Read, that is…"
"I don't know Mind Read, but I suppose it can't be very powerful regarding the amount of concentration you need…" she said. "But what I felt was a tremendous power… I know only of one person who holds such power, but you aren't him…"
"The power you two radiated was great enough that everybody in this village who is an adept must have sensed it!" That was a new voice! I looked more closely at the girl to see that a Venus Djinni was sitting on her shoulder! She took him in her hands so we could look at him. "This is Root, my friend. And I'm Lilly. We have to know how you did this…"
"Wow, a Djinni!" I interrupted. "Hey Root, what's your special ability?"
"You know about Djinn?!" Lilly asked surprised.
"Of course we do!" Kara said and both of us put our Djinn on standby. "Many people have Djinn, don't they?" she asked.
Lilly shook her head. "Afar from the Great Heroes, few people are able to impress a Djinni so much that it would join them…" She patted the Venus Djinni's head. "Root here has been with me only for a few hours. I rescued her from some non-adept men who tried to catch her against her will…"
"Her?" I asked.
Suddenly there was a shout from downstairs. "Silence!!! This is an INN, people come here to SLEEP!!!" The voice grew quieter, mumbling incoherently about "meddlesome kids…"
"Let's continue inside…" Kara suggested. We went into mine and Kara's room and closed the door behind us. Kara and I sat down on the bed; Lilly kept standing.
"Of course her!" Lilly said. "Something wrong with that?!"
"Bubble and Gas are both male, that's why we were a little surprised…" I defended myself.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Gas asked indignantly. "Of course you didn't think all of us are male!"
"Well," Kara said, squirming. "In our game, Djinn were genderless…"
"Totally weird game…" Gas muttered.
"A game with Djinn?" Lilly was thrilled. "You MUST tell me about it!!!"
"That's a long story…" I yawned. "You wouldn't believe us anyway…"
Lilly didn't give up that easily, though. "Tell me anyway!!!"
I decided to discuss the matter with Kara: Should we tell her our story?
Not now… came the answer. Not yet. Let's ask her a few things first, where she's from and what she's doing here. We'll see whether to trust her or not.
We turned back to her. "Maybe later." I told her. "We'd like to know a little more about you first."
"Hey, did you just use psynergy to communicate?" she asked curiously.
"You're a smart girl!" Kara said. "Must be difficult to hide something from you… Yes we did. Will uses Mind Read to connect our minds, enabling us to speak by sending thoughts to each other."
"That's fascinating!" she exclaimed. "I bet you can even talk without language, just using pictures and emotions!"
"That's what we were doing when you knocked on our door a few minutes ago." I said, blushing slightly. "But we didn't know we were emitting such strong psynergy…"
"Aw, come on, you must have felt it!!! Root didn't even exaggerate when she said every adept in this village must have sensed it! It was overwhelming!!!" She gestured wildly with both arms. "WHAT exactly have you done?!"
"We really don't know what we did, but we do know how we did it." Kara said. "Look, we'll do it again, and you'll watch us and tell us what you see, alright?"
I don't feel very comfortable about this… I told Kara.
I know. came her reply. I don't either. But it shouldn't be too difficult just to focus on each other, don't you think?
I couldn't help grinning. I guess you're right! I love you so much, Kara!
She climbed onto my lap and embraced me. All of a sudden I didn't remotely care that we were being watched. I put my arms around her and gently pulled her close, resting my head against her shoulder. As I started to stroke her back, I intensified the connection like last time, sending to her all my blissful feelings and receiving hers. Drawn together by our love and affection, our consciousnesses more and more merged into one. Suddenly, Kara's memories were my memories as well, and I could remember events from her life back at home. Somehow I knew we had reached some sort of threshold, but neither of us did know – or care – how to go on from that point. After some time we lowered the power level until we were two separate people again. Still, a passive kind of connection kept lingering between us.
We opened our eyes – and saw Lilly staring at us in utmost awe. Her mouth stood wide open and she looked as if she had seen, well, something real frightening. Like, for example, Alex losing his temper…
"What ARE you guys?!" she breathed when she finally regained her speech. "What did you see?" I asked eagerly. She waved her arms in despair, struggling to find words. "You glowed… pulsated with psynergy… incredible power…" she stammered.
"Calm down…" Kara said soothingly, taking a step towards her, but she backed away, fear in her eyes. "Stay away from me!!!"
Kara stopped dead in her tracks, a sad look on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked pleadingly. "You don't have to be afraid of us…"
Our Djinn, who had watched from the bedside table, jumped down and we picked them up. Gas snuggled up against me, whispering: "I'm still your friend, Will. Your power frightens me, too, but I know you would never use it to hurt me…" I lifted him up to my face and hugged him awkwardly, grateful for his trust and affection. I looked to Kara. She wiped away a tear, kissing her little Djinni on the head.
"That's not very nice, Lilly!" Root said, jumping down and facing the girl. "You asked to see their power, now you must answer their questions, too! Besides, they didn't do anything wrong! Or do you want to blame them for sharing a love that strong that it affects their surroundings?!"
She turned around. "I'll trust you. As Lilly said already, my name is Root, and unleashing me allows all of you to draw energy from the earth, making you regenerate health throughout the battle!"
"Neat!" I said, bending down. "I'm Will and this is Kara. These are Gas and Bubble. I guess they can explain their abilities themselves." We put our partners down and the three Djinn started chatting excitedly.
"I'm sorry." Lilly said, approaching us. "I was scared by your power because of something that has happened to me…"
She walked past us and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I guess you know that Vale has been destroyed." Both of us nodded and she went on: "Well, I experienced its destruction very closely… I'll tell you my story."
She took a deep breath. "I am from Lunpa, north of here. Two days ago, I went to visit relatives of mine in Vale, but nobody was there, the village was empty. They have this huge psynergy stone at the center of the plaza, though. I decided to use it to search the town. You see, my mother was from Vale herself, and I inherited her Venus psynergy. So I used the stone to magnify my power, searching for any signs of psynergy around me, not finding anything, though. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion and I was swiped off my feet and knocked out by the shockwave."
She shrugged. "I don't exactly know ho long I was unconscious, must've been a couple of hours. When I awoke, I was still in front of the psynergy stone, but everything around me was gone. A huge crater is now where Vale was before, with Mt. Aleph in it's middle. Only the ground behind the psynergy stone that forms a line away from the center of the blast was still there. It looks like the crystal absorbed most of the power. I healed myself and decided to come here, since it's the closest town. Now I have no idea where my grandparents are, though. They are probably still alive, since the town was empty already before the explosion, but I have no idea where they could be or where I should start searching…"
"Why don't we travel together then?" Kara proposed. "We are looking for Kraden the scholar, so basically we're both searching for Vale's inhabitants!"
"I know Kraden!" Lilly said in excitement. "What do you want from him?"
"We want to ask him to help us get back to – uh… home!" I told her.
"And where is your home?" Lilly asked curiously.
"Well, that's the problem." Kara answered. "Our home is not on Weyard…"
"WHAT?!" Lilly asked incredulously. "You want to tell me you're some kind of aliens?"
"Thank you." I said ironically. "No, I'd rather say we're from a different world. We got here by accident… more or less." I exchanged meaningful looks with Kara. "Since Kraden is the greatest scholar around here, he might be the only one who can help us to get back."
"If you're not from Weyard, how do you know so much about it?" Lilly objected. "I mean, you know about Kraden, you have Djinn, you are even adepts!!! Makes no sense to me…"
"In our world, there is a series of games set in Weyard." I started explaining. "It starts with Isaac's departure in Vale. I suppose you have heard of him?"
"Of course!" Lilly said indignantly. "I knew him a little. Before he went to recover the elemental stars, I had seen him a few times. My grandmother told me the whole story, what had happened in Sol Sanctum that day…"
"Yeah, and the two of us know these games very well. In fact, we should pretty much know what has happened in Weyard up to this point. How long has it been since the rise of the Golden Sun?"
"About one and a half day…" Lilly contemplated. "But how comes you are here? People aren't supposed to frequently travel between worlds, you'd think!"
"You know, the early afternoon of today, back at my home, this fellow named Alex appeared. He is from here also." Lilly shook her head. "Never heard of him." I continued: "He gave me something which he said was the third game of the series. Well, when I tried to play it, there was a bright flash. When I awoke, I was in a forest north of here. Kara had tried to stop me. Because she had touched me, she was transported here as well…"
"I'll show you what happened directly before the destruction of Vale." I said, pulling my GBA out. I removed the dud cartridge and switched it for The Lost Age. "Oh dang, I don't have any working batteries!" I suddenly remembered.
Lilly meanwhile stared at the GBA in awe. "This is definitely NOT from Weyard!" she said. "May I look at it?"
"Sure." I said, handing it to her. "Just be careful, this is our ticket back home!"
She took it from my hand and examined it carefully. "What does it do?" she asked.
"In our world, it is solely used for entertainment. Stored on these cartridges are games. You just put the one you want to play into this slot. To play, you also need batteries." I showed her a pair. "Electric power is stored on them. Think of it as a very weak form of lightning. It constantly flows through the system and powers it, once you turn on the power. Unfortunately these are all empty…"
Kara tipped me on the shoulder. "Why don't you try to charge them?" she asked. "You should be able to use some sort of electric-based psynergy."
"I need to try that." I said. Raising my hand, I moved my index finger and thumb away from each other and concentrated. Luckily I've always paid attention in physics lesson… I thought, mentally trying to push all those little electrons upwards. Moments later, I could feel a tension build up between my fingers, until there was a flash and a tiny bolt of lightning was visible for a second.
Feeling more confident, I produced a stable current this time which resulted in a constant arc of electricity. "Way to go!" Kara said proudly.
"I don't think I can charge them this way, though. It is still way too powerful, the batteries would be destroyed." I put them back in my pocket and tried to think of another way.
"What if you use the ones Alex gave you?" Kara proposed. "I don't think you can ever overcharge them!"
"Good thinking!" I said approvingly, taking them out. I put them between my fingers and repeated what I had done before. This time, I could feel the batteries absorb my power. After a while I stopped, feeling a little drained, but the batteries seemed still rather empty. I shrugged and put them in, then turned on the power.
"WHOO-HOO!!! It works!" Lilly squealed. Indeed, the power bulb was green and the usual logo appeared on the screen.
"I'll show you the end of the game. This will tell you what has happened directly before the destruction of Vale." I started the second file, which was immediately before the Doom Dragon. I quickly defeated it (no prob for my party, hehe…) and we watched the credits.
Lilly gasped when she saw the figure of Felix (He didn't fight in the battle, because the GS 1 crew was much stronger…). "Isn't that Felix? I thought he was dead!"
"He isn't dead. The day of the storm three years before Isaac's departure, nobody died. Felix is alive, as is Isaac's father Kyle and both of Jenna's parents." I told her the story how they were held in Prox to force Felix to light the Elemental Lighthouses. I also told her that the world would be slowly withering away if the lighthouses hadn't been lit. Together we watched how the final Lighthouse was lit, how Alex got the power he wanted (or rather thought he got it), how the crew returned to Vale and finally the reunion with Garet 's family and Isaac's mother Dora.
Lilly was stunned at the pictures on the screen. To her, the GBA seemed like a miracle. "How does this thing work?!"
"Sorry, I don't know. I'm not that much into electrical engineering…" I said, shrugging.
"How can this thing know what had happened?" she continued asking.
"That I don't know either. The only explanation I could think of is that there has been some travelling between our worlds before…"
"…and whoever made these games must've been here also!" Kara concluded. "But does that help us?" she asked.
"Probably not." I shrugged again, turning the GBA of and putting it away again. Lilly looked at it kind of disappointed…
"So will we travel together?" Kara asked her. "We don't mind helping you, since we don't have anything to do anyway here! Besides finding Kraden, of course…"
"Alright, it's decided then!" Lilly said, grinning. "I guess I'll leave you two alone now… See you downstairs tomorrow!" With that, she left the room, careful not to shut the door too quietly. Just when we turned to each other, the door opened again. "You know, I think we might actually become friends!" Lilly said, grinning broadly. "Goodnight!!" She waved at us with a mischievous look on her face, then left, finally leaving the two of us alone.
Kara immediately dropped down onto the bed. "I'm done for today." She breathed. "I can't remember having ever felt that tired!"
I only nodded, crawling under the blankets, next to her. "Goodnight…" I murmured, curling up against her and closing my eyes. "Goodnight Will…" she whispered and kissed my cheek. I returned her kiss, let out a content sigh – and thought no more.
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Quizer