Disclaimer: If I owned Golden Sun, I wouldn't be writing this. I would be writing for the storyboard for a new game.

A/N: Short again, I know. But I've uploaded the long seventh chapter, so I'm making up for it!

I have recently spell-checked and edited this chapter.

There was a large group of people there that day-most of Vale, I would say. There was the Great Healer, and Garet's family, of course, but Mother was not there. I didn't expect her to have been.

"We are counting on you, Isaac." pronounced the healer. "Oh, and you, too, Garet."

"Don't drink the water if it smells funny," ordered Kay. "And...take this with you, too."

She walked up to me and handed me an herb leaf.

"I know not to drink stagnant water, sis!" protested Garet.

"Don't listen to him, Isaac!" proclaimed Aaron. "He's a pig! He'll eat anything that's not tied down!"

Garet shot his little brother a glare. "I will not!"

"Dora is very late," commented a lesser healer.

"Oh! That's right!" cried Aaron. "Aunty Dora asked me to give this to you, Isaac."

Aaron gave me a small necklace. I gasped when I saw it was Mother's prized Psynergy beads.

"I guess we're all set to go, huh, Isaac?" Garet said pointedly.

"Think again, Garet!" said Kay. "It must be very difficult for Dora..."

Garet's mother nodded. "I know how Dora must be feeling. But I still have Garet's father, while Dora has only Isaac. She doesn't want you to go, Isaac, but she knows you have to, and it hurts to see you leave."

"They can't keep standing around here like this, or they'll never leave!" declared the mayor. "So, one final farewell!"

He turned around, and he must have given some sort of signal, for, as one, they all exclaimed, "Farewell!"

I led the way out of Vale.

Once we were on the dirt road, Garet asked abruptly, "So...what do we do now?"

I hadn't really thought about that. "Um...we start trekking to Vault. Maybe we can find something useful there."

I had never been to any other town. The thought cheered me. We started walking.

After about fifteen minutes, I saw a flickering...thing, spinning around through the air.

"Isaac?"

"Yeah, Garet?"
"What is that thing?"

"No idea. Maybe it's one of those Djinni-things."

The...thing...suddenly stopped spinning. "Oh!" it squeaked. "A traveling warrior!"

Then it clearly used some sort of Psynergy. "And I see you're an Adept, too!"

"You're just the kind of fighter I've been looking for!" it exclaimed. "Won't you please take me along with you? I am a Venus Djinni. My name is Flint. I must find my comrades. I have to! We were separated from each other when the volcano erupted. Maybe you can help gather my friends together as you travel. If you let me join you, I'll be very beneficial to you Adepts! Your Psynergy will grow stronger, and your Adept skills will improve. You can call on us in battle or just use our power to boost your own! If you call on many of us at once, our powers will work together! What do you think? Will you take me with you?"

"Ummm...let me discuss it with my friend Garet." I told the Djinni. It had clearly worked on that speech, and I hoped it wasn't that talkative all the time.

"Garet!" I hissed, poking him. "What do you think?"

"It doesn't look too tough to me," he said, shrugging.

Unfortunately, the Djinni heard that. "I am too strong!" Flint declared. "And I'll boost your powers and oh, please, please, please take me with you! After all...I can strike a blow that can cleave stone!"

"Fine, we'll take you with us." I agreed.

"Who's this we?" asked Garet. "He's a Venus Djinni, you're a Venus Adept. Seems pretty obvious to me."

"OK, then, I'll take you with me."

"Oh, you'll see!" squealed Flint. "You won't regret it! Now let me tell you more about us."

I groaned.

"There's three stages of Djinn." Flint explained. "Set, standby, and recovery. Right now I'm on standby, because I'm visible. I don't boost your powers at this time. But you can use me to summon monsters to fight for you! Since you only have one Djinni right now, all you can summon is the element of Venus. But if you get another Venus Djinni, you can summon Ramses if we're both on standby! When we're on set, we boost your powers. You can call us up in battle to use our set power-like mine is to strike a blow that can cleave stone, remember? And after we do that, we're on standby, and then you can summon! After you summon, we'll go on recovery. We don't boost your powers, and you can't summon us. Then we'll automatically go back on set mode! We Djinn can be very useful, can't we? Did you get all that?"

"Yeah." I would have agreed to anything to get that lecture over with! Ugh! He was worse than Kraden!

"Then I'll go on set. Ready?"

"Uh...Flint...what exactly is set?"

But my question arrived too late. He disappeared into thin air.

"Flint? Flint?"
I'm here!

"Where?"

In your head!

"Huh?"
Garet was staring at me as if I'd lost my mind.

Don't worry...I won't tell anyone your secret thoughts! Although that is interesting...

"He's somehow in my head." I explained to Garet.

"O-kay...Whatever." Garet shook his head.

And don't worry...I would never, ever, ever, tell anyone this interesting bit of information! Flint laughed. Though I'm sure that gossip Quartz would love to hear it! Of course, if you're going to pick up all of us I guess she'll hear it anyway! And I do not talk too much! I'm offended!

I held my head in my hands. "Let's just get on to Vault," I told Garet weakly.