Disclaimer: For the Third time, I did not invent slash currently own Golden Sun

Chapter 3: The Introduction of Mitch and Urgent Developments

Jenna groaned in protest as she rose from the depths of her restful slumber. She awoke in that half-awake state known only by certain fiction authors who are forced to wake up at 5:00 am everyday to catch the bus to get to school on time so said author would be able to live another day.

As she rolled over onto her back, the part of her that was beginning to cogitate realized that it was already getting dark, probably mid to late evening; it was at least 7:00 pm at that point. This part of her told Jenna very quietly: Wake up.

Jenna sat up with a sluggish movement, yawning repeatedly and stretching her arms. She glanced down and saw a fairly large cut down her pant leg, a testimony to what had happened to her earlier that day. She inspected her surroundings closer as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

Isaac, Felix, and Mia where lying all around her, all in comfortable sleeping positions. They where all sleeping peacefully, excepting Isaac, who periodically had bouts of chronic snoring, and Jenna also noticed that someone scratched the word 'Infirmary' into the ground, probably in bad humor or because the voices had told him or her to.

With a general weary slowness, Jenna turned her head to see a campfire burning innocently only a few yards away. If she strained her eyes, she thought that she could see a human figure sitting on the ground closely to it. Straining further, Jenna could barely make out its face and, not surprisingly, it was Mitch, the boy who had supposedly saved her life.

As if suddenly aware that he was being watched, Mitch's head quickly jerked away from the tome he was reading and he inspected Jenna's fixed stare with an expression that could have been amusement. Long neglected instincts began to indicate that he was vaguely interested in her, although he could not exactly determine why.

Aware that she was the center of his attention at the moment, Jenna waved dumbly and blushed. Mitch creased the page of his book, stood up, and headed towards Jenna.

"Come on," he said kindly as he kneeled down, "Make yourself at home,"

Almost as soon as Jenna blinked, she was comfortably seated at the fire with a blanket around her shoulders and a large mug of hot cocoa in her hand. She blew on it softly, causing tidal waves of chocolate to smash into the tiny marshmallow shores before taking her first sip.

"How are you feeling?" Mitch asked from the other side of the campfire, enjoying his own mug.

Jenna looked up. "Fine," she replied, "Everything considered,"

Mitch nodded and turned his gaze to the others. "They your friends?"

Jenna looked up again, this time following his gaze.

"Yes," she answered and gazed at Mitch, "How are you feeling?" She told her mind to cut it out as she felt her heart rate increase as she forced herself to maintain eye contact.

"Hmm?" Mitch asked, not paying total attention.

"You," Jenna repeated, "Are you okay? You got a bit beat up back there,"

"You mean the paw in the face?" he responded, rubbing his cheek gingerly, "Still hurts," He brightened up, "You hungry?"

Jenna politely accepted the bowl that was offered. Wielding a spoon against what looked like beef stew; she ate as quickly as decency allowed. Finishing that, she accepted a refill of cocoa and the two began to hit it off. After a few minutes of small talk, Jenna could no longer resist her curiosity.

"What was that meat?" she asked, "In the stew I mean. It was pretty good,"

Mitch looked a little sheepish, "Err...chimera?" he said.

After a few minutes, Jenna recovered from her chronic coughing problem.

Feeling the need to make another comment, she said, "It...err...tasted like chicken..."

"Most everything does," Mitch replied, "Trust me on that,"

This got a chuckle out of Jenna, who responded with, "I'll take your word for it,"

Mitch smiled and nodded, "You know," he said, "I don't even know your name,"

"It's Jenna, and you're Mitch?" she responded.

With a nod, Mitch extended a hand, "That's right," he affirmed.

Jenna reached out and shook Mitch's hand firmly, trying not to imagine that she was feeling a tingly sensation flowing up her arm. It wasn't working very well and she very quietly gasped.

"Does your hand hurt?" Mitch asked as she mentally scolded herself.

"No, no..." she replied sheepishly, "Its fine, really it is..."

Mitch gave her an inquisitive but still skeptic look. After a long moment, he seemed to give up.

"If you're sure," he sighed turning his gaze back towards the fire.

Jenna did the same and felt the combination of heat and the comforting presence of the element Mars. The fire calmed her nerves and relieved the tension in her muscles as she lay back, inspecting the stars that began to show themselves.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Mitch asked, suddenly right next to her. Jenna felt that this was the best time for an extended yet interesting lecture on common astrological mythology.

"Yes," she said inspecting the night sky, "You see that constellation right there?"

"Yes," Mitch responded, looking down the length of Jenna's arm.

"Do you know what that is?" Jenna asked, turning her head over to look at Mitch.

"I can't say that I do," Mitch replied, turning his own head.

"Well..." Jenna began with a deep breath, "If you look at that star...the one right there...next to the red one...no not that one...that one...the little one...Yeah, that one...Now if you follow that line of stars to the left...yes that line...over to that big blue star over there...that's right, and then up through that big cluster to the lower right hand corner...no the one that looks like a flower...yes that's the one...now it kind of makes a squiggle to the left and then through that ring of stars...the bigger ring...yes...and then you see how it splits off...No, just a little lower down the line...Yes that's it..."

And so he evening went on with Jenna somehow stuffing a semester of tales and facts into a neatly compressed two hour time span.

When finishing the epic story of Io and the celestial herring, Jenna cut herself off with an intrusive yawn. The yawn spread over to Mitch, who sat up and stretched.

"I think that we should be getting to...yawn...sleep," Jenna noted as Mitch offered her a hand.

"Agreed," Mitch replied, "Well...good night Jenna,"

"Good night Mitch," Jenna fingered the material of the blanket around her in nervous anticipation.

After a long and slightly uncomfortable moment, Mitch nodded and smiled. "Shall I show you to your sleeping bag?" he offered sarcastically.

Jenna giggled, which was something she did not do too often and so was relatively bad about it. Mitch flinched as she did so, and Jenna giggled again, this time quieter and with more girlish innocence.

"Sure," she said with an honorable attempt at sarcasm.

Mitch smiled and did so, and when they reached it, Jenna tried to convey with her eyes the thing that she wanted but could not bring herself to ask.

With a raised eyebrow, Mitch inspected Jenna's beseeching gaze and asked if anything was wrong. Jenna, sounding slightly disappointed, said that everything was just perfect...With no attempted sarcasm whatsoever...uh-huh...

"Well, g'night then," Mitch said with a hint of apology in his voice as Jenna lied down and pulled the blanket over her head. After hearing a small but a little sharp, "G'night Mitch," Mitch considered asking what she wanted again, but ended up shrugging and sitting back down near the fire.

Jenna's head peeked out from the cover and watched him begin to read his book again. With a sigh she closed her eyes to fall back to sleep...

New Vale – At that point

A horse walked along the main street and turned towards Isaac's house. The man who was mounted leaned down and conversed with a man who looked very much like a lumberjack. The lumberjack pointed to Isaac's house and the man on the horse nodded and thanked the lumberjack. Following the road, he stopped at Isaac's walkway and dismounted, made his way to the door, and knocked on the door.

Kyle, Isaac's father, answered the door.

"Yes?" he said, slightly irritated at the bowing figure, "Can I help you?"

"Pardon me for intruding sir," said the man, who would be better described as a boy since he had all of his hair and it was on his head, "But I must ask if Master Isaac is in,"

"I'm sorry, no," Kyle answered with a suspicious tone, "Why do you need him?"

"Urgent message from His Grace, Lord Hammet of Kalay," the messenger replied, "It is very important," The lad's chest swelled with self-proclaimed importance, "Be sure he gets this please sir," He waved an envelope that bore the Hammet coat-of-arms.

"I'll be sure to get this to..." Kyle sniggered, "...Master Isaac,"

"Again I must apologize for interrupting your evening sir," the messenger said, "But my task was..."

"Yes, yes," Kyle interrupted, "Very important, I know. Tell me lad, do you like being a messenger?"

The messenger looked taken aback. "Err...It's alright I suppose," he replied to Kyle's question. He brightened up a bit. "But I'd really love to direct," he said proudly.

It was Kyle's turn to be confused. "That's...very nice lad," he said, "Err...you just keep on trying...Am I supposed to sign something?"

"Oh!" the messenger exclaimed, "Thank you sir, for reminding me. Please sign this right here,"

After Kyle had done so, the messenger again apologized, turned about face, mounted his horse, and rode out of New Vale with a mind full of play scripts that he needed to write down...

Kyle shook his head with a hint of a smile on his face as he closed the door. He turned to his wife, who spoke before he could.

"What's wrong dear?" Dora asked.

"I'm not sure Dora," Kyle answered. He carefully opened the envelope and pulled out a rather large piece of parchment and began to read. Halfway down, his eyes widened in disbelief as he re-read that particular section.

"Go wake up Ivan," he said to Dora, "We need to find Isaac and the others,"

"Why dear?" Dora asked as she stood, "Kyle? What's wrong?"

Kyle looked into his wife's eyes, "Something's happened to Hammet, Wake up Ivan," he said.

They both rushed to round up Piers, Ivan, Garet and Sheba. After their cadre was equipped and ready, they headed out into the night, following the footsteps and searching for their friends and in two cases, children, Isaac, Mia, Felix, and Jenna...

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