"I am not going to go with you to the Silk Road for the last time!" yelled the little round tanish colored ball loudly. "Bad enought I have to put up with you for every single day inside the house, so why do I have to go on off and travel with you again? Besides, Flower here is gonna give me a birthday gift, which I may add you missed this morning!"
"FLINT!" moaned Isaac. "Come on! I know that you want to go on and leave this place as well! You have been doing nothing but sitting down here in the lounge chair... lounging! You've gained, what? Sixty, seventy pounds!"
"Hey! I have NOT! You are just jeaulous cause I'm jolly!"
"-and fat..." muttered the teen.
Sighing, the orange-hair-colored teen just turned away, his little mouth in a small pout. Knowing Flint, who was celebrating his -cough-million-cough- one thousandth birthday today, he would follow Isaac as soon as he left the door to the outside. And it was true. Flint was showing signs of... largeness...
He had already packed up a few hours ago, and had written a note to his parents (who are visting the neighbors) explaining about his absence some more, just to tell them that he was going to be ok, etc. Overall, he was ready. Just now picking up the last amounts of furrballs that refused to leave off the recling chairs. Not that he really needed them all... Ok, so that was a lie. He wanted to at least do Grand Gaia every once in a while. Hey, those Vermins are really dangerous you know...
"Fine, whatever. Stay home then, all alone, with no one to go and feed you whenever you desire... No one to make your bed, no one to clean after you... No one..."
"ALL RIGHT! Gesh! You sound like a grim reaper or something! FLOWER!" yelled the puffo halfway across the room. "FLOWER! WE ARE LEAVING! GET READY TO GO!"
"A little more yelling and I would have cracked your skull, you know..." muttered the now-emerging puff-ball-with-a-bow. "I'm no slave that comes when called."
"But it's my birthday..." whined the other.
The teen just rolled his eyes. "Guys..." He grabbed the little sacks of good and threw them onto himself. "Are we ready to go now? Or can we wait for another two hundred years to fly by?"
"Come on Isaac-kun," teased Flint as Isaac moaned. "You are only fifty-seven..."
"AND A HALF!" laughed Flower as her bow flashed happily in the wind as the exited outside.

Chapter Two:
In Which Two Old "Friends" Are Met On the Road
Year: 57 (And a half)

The sun high above them all was not a meance. In fact, it was rather a nice warmth it put out to them, considering it could be worse. Of course, it could be colder too, but that was when they will be traveling more south, where no matter what the season it stayed around the same. Wet, hot, and -well- wet. At least it wasn't a desert where he was heading off towards, but it was going to be rather close to one anyways... Deserts... He thought with a little cross look.
"You keep on looking like that, and people will think you are constipated or something," muttered Flint upon seeing the teen's facial expression. Isaac began to look even more cross upon that remark.
The trip towards the southern little village of Vault was dull - which meant that seeing paint dry would have been considered the life of the party. Sure, they were monsters, but Flower and Flint had a fun time getting rid of them. Besides, they were pathetic enough not to make Isaac any stronger. It could be almost be considered like a bully harassing some babies. Of course, at the beginning so many years ago...
Together, all of them stopped at a neighboring stream. It was a rather nice little stream that was pure and pristine clean; little fishes swimming through it, thier silver surfaces flashing like rainbows in the air. Flower and Flint, alond with thier - equally chubby - friend Geoude fished in the stream with vines that they controled. They all managed to wolf down the food, each of them very happy and content.
Evening came by in a pristine fashion as well. The sun's rays hitting high above reflecting off the flat horizon below, making a grand endevor. It was rather magnifice, but like other beautiful things, was finished quickly. It was something that the teen enjoyed watching, unless it was rainy and wet. Like the place he was supposed to go to sometime soon...
"Heya, Isaac?" yawned Flower as she turned around in her resting postion, rubbing her little pointed feet. The teen understood perfectly. Despite having been a traveler years ago with his friends... his body has gotten used to comfert. The whole thing about walking all day long on the road again brought back memories... And of course new pains in his own feet...
"What is it?" he yawned softly, covering his mouth. His mother always considered it to be a really rude thing to yawn in front of people with your mouth hanging open like a cow. In fact, when the teen was a tiny child, he was often told over again and again that yawning in front of people was a very bad thing to do.
"What do you think about this...'New World'? Do you like it?"
Isaac streched out upon the ground below. The New World? Yah, that was what some people had decided to call the new time that he now lived in. For about fifty years now... Population had somehwhat exploded, making humans and adepts go out to sections that only he and his friends have traveled towards. The large gap that Gaia Falls had eroded away was getting smaller and smaller. Now, it was clearly visible that the other side, whatever that was, was getting closer and closer. He shrugged slightly. "Yah, I rather like it, I guess, but I wonder if something might happen to us in the future. Will we turn into Lermurians who got really bored with our lives and don't really care if we live or die? Or will we be upkept and strong, making new advances in this world of Alchemy?"
"That's...rea-ally deep," snored the dozing Flint. "Man, you... really need to-o under...stand... that...In my time...Those sweet...girls..."
Flower and Isaac glanced at each other. "Man," muttered Flower in a disgusted tone, "Someone likes to talk a lot..."
"Good night Flower," responed Isaac. Geoude was already asleep on his rock.

Morning time came, showering the tree tops with an array of dazling colors, each showing a significant amount of brilliance. These rays penetrated to the lowest parts of the forest, hitting the teen straight at the face. He muttered slowly and turned around, making his scarf cover his eyes up like some sort of shield. But since the scarf was a golden color, it absorbed the light rays, illuminating the teen's eyes brighter than normal. With a small sound, the teen woke up, grumbling about things.
"Mooorning to you too, sleepy," said Flower. She was an early riser who had woken up the hour before. Isaac thought she was crazy at times.
"Hmph..." was Isaac's reply. He was never really much of a morning person, who would rather saty up late then wake up early. In fact, most of his friends - from the last time he saw them - did not like to wake up early either. Especially Jenna...
"ALL RIGHTY! Let's head south for today, then wait in Kaylay for a couple of days! AND then head towards the Silk Road!" yelled Flint.
"Isn't the Silk Road the full road from X'ian to Tolbi though. I mean, it's not just that one small section that goes from the Kaylay Docks to Tolbi. If... Feizhi and her family are coming from X'ian, then waiting at Kaylay would be a better idea than going off and traveling all the way towards Tolbi. Besides... they are coming to Vale, remember?" Isaac turned his head down and sighed softly. "Man, why do I have a feeling that when I see them it's not going to be one happy day?"
"Are you just feeling..." muttered Flint in a singysong voice, "SCARED?"
The teen arched his eye at her in a confusing manner. "Scared? Why would I be scared of meeting a Jupiter Adept and her family-?"
"'CAUSE YOU LIKE HERRRRR!" screamed the brown fluff.
"WHAT?" Isaac yelled. "I've only seen her ONCE and you automaticly assume that I like her or something? MAN, I knew you were stupid Flint, but not THAT stupid! Unbelieveable that you even got FLOWER to notice you-"
"HEY!" shouted Geoude, you had, until recently, been sleeping. Djinnis have no fingers, so it made one of the spikes on the foot point over towards an area in the far distance. "There are two people coming from the south!"
"How can you tell?" asked Flower and Flint, who were earlier "strangling" each other.
"While you three were fighting, I was busy going off and using my Venus powers to communicate to the trees in order to check if the road was clear. And they responded, 'Two humans,'!"
Isaac grumbled. "You are forgetting that only Djnnis can talk to trees, and not Adepts!"
Geoude had a little freaky smile upon his face. "Opps. Sorry about that Isaac. I forgot." He turned quickly over at his friends. "You two outta be ashamed of yourself! It's your job to help Isaac in everyway and-"
"Yadda yadda yadda, I know. 'Help him on his adventures as we agreed upon forty years ago.' Bleh. I KNOW already. Sesh, I'm sorry!" yelled Flint in utter annoyance.
"Takes a while for the thunderhead to learn his lesson, however," said Flower while checking the south area as well. "One time, Mrs. Dora was busy ironing and Flint wanted to see what made the iron hot. So he placed his foot upon it five times until he got the notion," at this Flower made a stupid look upon her face," 'Hey! It's really hot! DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR." Along with the stupid look was some drool she hanged out on purpose.
After some reminders from both Geoude and Isaac, all of them decided to go and walk towards the road south. They were all curious over who were the two strangers that were coming towards them, but they were going to see them eventually. After all, the teen's group was heading south, and the strangers group was heading north.
Upon walking south, the teen was busily bitting into a little piece of bread that was very delicous and good tasting. It didn't go stale yet, so that was good news. Some cheese - still fresh thanks to Flint (who could surprisingly do stuff when he wasn't being lazy) - went into a sandwich as well. An apple, provided by neighboring trees, was quickly eaten before they even reached the well-traveled road south. So, by the time they got to the road...
"Man... I'm still hungry..." muttered Isaac outload. "I felt like I didn't eat anything yet. How about you guys?"
Flower shook her head in a "no" position. "Sorry Isaac, we kinda forgot that you are an Adept and need more food then we do... Hehehe..." She had a nervous look upon her face (that is if Djinnis can get nervous looks...) "Hopefully there will be some village we can go to before we all get really hungry. Then we can eat our faces full!"
Slowly, they began to walk down the path, making sure that Geoude and Flint weren't lagging behind. They were both looking around, admiring the view, but that tended to slow them down by a whole lot. It was a good day however, despite the gnawing in the teen's stomach. It promised to be really well, with practically no rain. There were clouds, but these clouds were mainly staying high above.
After many minuets, two little dark grey blobs began to appear towards the road. Flower, Flint, and Geoude all went and hid themselves inside the scarf folds of the teen, and dissapeared from the world momentarily. So, it was Isaac all alone - in a sense - that walked up closer towards the two people. He was not the least bit worried or afraid (hey, why SHOULD he be?), but he was really curious. Who were they? Would they like to go and talk with him? Or would they just sniff and turn away? (And considering that there was a lot of people like that in the world, that was highly likely.)
Finally, Isaac turned his head and looked around. There, right in front of him was the two people. Something about them jogged his memory, but they were still quite a distance away from him right then and there. From his point of view, he could see both of them clad in some sort of white training robes, but they both were somewhat different. One had really spikey blue hair, and the other had some sort of orangey-red color. Upon getting closer, he noticed both of them seemed rather well built. (While he was pretty much very slim. Not much muscle, but then again he never wanted to be a large, bulking man.) The orange-one was muscular (very), but the smaller (not by much) blue-haired one was not as bad... er... muscular.
"Hey over there! May I ask your name, young child?" yelled the orange haired one. They were all now within really close walking distance as well as yelling distance.
"Ornamos! You should...talking...strangers..." The other man was merely talking at a normal speech, so Isaac had a hard time trying to understand all that he was saying. That was to be expected, but they were both getting closer as the seconds passed.
After many minutes, the two people finally reached the place as to where Isaac was, with his scarf annoyingly blowing in the wind like it normally did at times. Akk. What was their names again? He waved weakly and then made himself introduce himself.
"Um... Hello," started Isaac while being a tiny bit nervous. Normally, Garet talked when introducing themselves to others. "I'm Isaac from the city of Vale..."
"Isaac, eh? Hey, have we met before? Sean, do you recall a kid called Isaac? This kid is bugging my memory somehow..." The larger one, the one called Ornamos, seemed to ponder out loud. "Hmm..."
Sean, the one with the blue hair it seemed, had his own mouth in a small thinking frown. "Hmmm... Nope. Not that I can really recall as of right now..."
"Oh. Well. Since we never met, I'm Ornamos," said... well... Ornamos. "And this is my partner in crime, Sean!"
Isaac realled back cautiously. Appently, it was kinda noticed 'cause Ornamos and Sean chuckled. "Not that type of partner in crime. I mean best buddy!" Isaac then got kinda red and then calmed down after that quick stupid moment.
Sean, apparently the wiser of the two, semmed to look around and then looked back at Isaac. "Are you traveling alone?"
Isaac brought his hand up and then laughed slightly. "Yah, I guess you can say that I am alone. No one else is here walking with me and all."
"And you came all the way from Vale?" continued the blue-haired man.
Isaac nodded. "Yah, I got really bored and got an invite from an... old aqaintance from X'ian."
"Alone? With all of these monsters walking down the street? You must be one assured Adept. So, what type are you?"
Isaac blinked, then realized what Sean said. Considering that Vale was now a large city of Adpets and people how want to become Adpets... It was now kinda bluntly obvious that any person coming from Vale probebly was indeed an Adpet to some extent. "Well. I'm a Venus one last time I really checked. Hehehe..."
"REALLY?" exclaimed Ornamos. "I'm a Mars and my friend Sean here is a Mercury. We've been Adpets for the past twenty-five years now thanks to that stone you guys have over there!" Ornamos then gave Isaac a good stare (but a kind one). "How old are you? Seventeen? Isn't that still kinda young to travel alone?"
"I'm not going that far-"
"Isaac... Isaac from Colosso! Now I recall you! The one who beat the Kraken and saved the boat, then crushed your opponets in Colosso as Babi's personal favorite warrior!" Sean turned around and looked straight at the orange haired teen. "Isn't that right?"
"Yah... I did win Colosso... But that was a really long time ago..."
"What?" exclaimed Ornamos, then he gave Isaac a really good look. "Hey, you are right. Now that you say it, he IS that boy. Hey! How's it been going. You look the same you know!"
Isaac sighed, feeling a little bit embaressed. "Yah, a lot of people seem to comment on that subject. And I have been doing really fine lately. Just really bored."
Sean gave the teen a nod. "You seem much more fed than the last time we met. What have you been doing for the last forty years? Apparently looking around really good and living somewhat well."
Isaac nodded. "Yah. Me and my family finally re-built our house... That was because the mountain kinda took it down to the bottom of a really large cashym..."
Ornamos then jumped up in an excited way. "Hey. Forty years ago you were strong enough to defeat the Kraken! But now that since we have also learned Psynergy for the past twenty-five, how about we go and have a little playful fight against each other... For old times sake!"
"That seems like a good idea Ornamos," said Sean. "If only it wasn't for the fact it will be a two on one sort of deal..."
"HE CAN TAKE BOTH OF YOU ON!"
Isaac flinched. He knew that coice from anywhere. There was a reason as to why he called Flint the leader of the annoying Djinnis. Flint always seemed to go on and get the orange-haired teen into really big trouble.
"What was that?" asked Sean in a questioning manner. "A bird?" he joked.
"Well, we shall take that as an acceptance, if you don't mind Isaac!" nodded Ornamos in vigurosness.
Isaac was about to protest, but then something flew through his mind. He WAS bored after all, and he wanted to fight something (hopefully) worth while, and here was the perfect oppertunity... But then again, just even going near thinking that would make him seem like Garet... But he was incredibly bored and these two seemed up to it... He sighed. "All right. I will do a pratice fight against you guys... Let's see if a lone Venus Adpet can defeat his elemental weakness and a healer type." He gave a reasuring smile to himself. "But no swords, OK? I still have a place I need to go to..."
Sean and Ornamos, as well as Isaac, all got in a circle to get ready to fight. "Just and all out Psynergy brawl..." muttered Ornamos.