!-- /* Style Definitions */ , , {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} 3, 3, 3 {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} 1 {page:Section1;} --
Yes, I know, I know. I feel terrible for updating so sporadically. Shame on me. I think I need a mantra or some such thing.
(must update regularly must update regularly must update regularly must update regularly…) Anyway, I am sorry, and I will try to get this monstrosity finished as soon as I can. Here's the next chapter. It's mostly filler, but after all this stuff is out of the way it should start to get quite interesting. And it will, trust me.
Ps: Isaac is still drunk. That's why he's talking funny. I didn't goof, I swearChapter 5: Where'd the party go?
"You got arrived jus in time Piers!" Isaac shouted over the clamor of the heavy crowd. A throng of people had gathered in the Inn's dining room. He clapped his friend on the shoulder as he passed him by.
"Cheers!" he prompted, rising his bottle of alcohol in the air. About a dozen others mimicked him.
"Cheers!" they all said. Isaac took a long drink straight from a large red bottle and looked back around at Piers.
"Want some?" he asked, shoving the bottle into Piers' face.
"Ah, no thinks," he said, pushing it away as politely as he could manage, "you can have it."
"More for me!" Isaac said happily, and wandered away to mingle with the other villagers. Piers had never particularly liked parties, but smiled in spite of himself.
Piers wandered around the room a little, making a little conversation here and there. After deciding that he had done enough mingling, he resigned himself to watching the festivities from a secluded corner.
Sheba spotted him from the other side of the room and made her way over to him. They stood silently beside each other for some time. He noticed her sad eyes when looking down at her, but held his words to himself.
"I'll be leaving this place soon," she said, "It's…I've grown to love it."
Piers nodded, "My sentiments as well," he said. He enjoyed Vale, but what he enjoyed most was the company. She hadn't voiced it, but he felt sure that by the place she had meant the people.
"I…" she began, almost too quietly for Piers to hear, "I'm afraid, Piers. I'm ready to leave but I'm not sure…I just don't know if that's the best thing right now."
He looked down at her again and nodded, knowing full well what troubled her.
---
---
He sat on the bench outside the inn, watching his breath fog up in front of his face. Felix had never been one to join social events and this party would certainly be no exception. He stayed close though, always. It was a habit of his to stay close, even now when there clearly was no danger. Always during the long journey he would stand just outside of the crowd, just in case.
Just in case, he could be there if needed—always ready to help, no matter the circumstances.
That's probably why Garet (the life of every party) had christened him the "Watch Dog." "Throw him a bone," he would say, "that'll keep him happy. No need to waste the booze on him when he's not willing to join in." Of course, Garet would never say it around Felix unless he felt like literally being buried six feet under (with plenty of air supply, of course). He had learned his lesson once before. Felix never took too kindly to being called a dog for reasons of his own. No one, not even Jenna, had the nerve to ask; it was a purely private matter.
"I thought I would find you here." His musings interrupted, he looked up to see Jenna, a half smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. The look on his face blank, he merely shrugged.
"You really should join in," she said, sitting down beside him.
"That's what you always say," he replied.
"Well, I mean it." She giggled a little and looked over at him, "You should let your hair down once in awhile." Though Felix rarely reacted in the face of humor, he couldn't help but crack a small grin. Since he had grown it out, he had always kept his hair tied back, and, while his parents pestered him to cut it, Jenna pestered him to "let it down" so to speak. It was her little way of telling him to let go. Cute as it was, he wasn't about to do so.
"I'll just sit here, thanks. Drunken obnoxious people irritate me."
As if on some invisible cue, Isaac walked up and Felix frowned slightly.
Why had he frowned? Isaac's presence just seemed to eat at him lately—he didn't know why. They had gotten along reasonably well since returning home, but lately, Felix became irritated by his mere presence and had become increasingly standoffish around him. Isaac wasn't too particularly worried about that tonight, though…
Isaac, oblivious, smiled at Jenna, "Heeey…" he said happily, sitting next to her and flinging his arm around her shoulders. She pushed him away from her.
Her cheeks flamed softly, "go hit on someone else, Isaac," she said, smelling the alcohol on his breath, "you're wasted."
"S'not my fault," he pouted, "Garet said…"
"Go," she said, "go tell Garet that."
Isaac thought a moment and smiled, "Okie-dokie." he stood, and, ambling away, disappeared back inside.
Felix almost smiled too. Jenna sure knew how to get rid of said drunken obnoxious people.
---
---
A knock sounded from somewhere behind her door.
"Come in," she said.
Ivan's head peeked in anxiously, "we wondered where you had wandered off to."
"We?" Sheba asked, looking up from her half-packed travel bags.
"Well," he said anxiously, "just me and Mia, actually."
Ivan walked in to the room, closing the door behind him. He seemed unsure of himself. Sheba gazed at him for a long moment as he just stood there; she raised an eyebrow in his direction, "What's the matter?"
"Oh!" he said, as if surprised she would ask such a question. The older Jupiter adept twiddled his thumbs for a moment, "Well…" he said. Sheba frowned. Ivan, as long as she had known him, had never easily expressed himself. He always hung back and tried to voice his opinions as little as possible. Even so…he had never been quite this nervous.
"Just spit it out," she said playfully, a strained smile on her face. She had somewhat of an idea of where this was headed.
"I talked with Mia, and…" he paused briefly, "We've decided to join you on the way back home. I wasn't sure what you had planned, though…" he glanced in the direction of her bags.
"Oh, that. I-I actually hadn't thought much about that, honestly." She hadn't thought on it at all. How could she have forgotten? Leaving Vale…of course her friends would want to come with her. As much as none of them wanted to admit it, Sheba felt sure that after she left Vale, she would never see her companions again. It would only make sense, then, that they would want to come with her.
"But why the two of you?" What an odd combination. She hardly knew Mia, anyway. Sheba and Jenna had become close friends only for the fact that they were the only young girls in the party, but she hadn't met Mia until the near end of the journey. She understood Ivan, of course, he was the only other wind adept she had come to know. But why Mia?
Ivan saw the confused expression on her face, "Let me explain," he said, "We're both starting to feel a little homesick, so…well, we want to make this goodbye as quick and painless as possible—a clean break, so to speak."
Sheba was about to say something; she had even opened her mouth, in fact, so that she could speak, but Jenna's face suddenly appeared in the doorway.
"Am I interrupting something?" she giggled. Ivan's cheeks lit up, but Sheba hadn't noticed the insinuation.
"Not really," she said calmly, "Why?"
"I just wondered where the party had gone. Everyone kept disappearing, so I came around to see who I could find."
"Well," Sheba glanced back at Ivan, whose cheeks had reverted to their natural shade, "We were just discussing my departure."
"depar…?" Jenna frowned, seeing the bags on Sheba's bed, "You're leaving, then?"
"I think…" Sheba glance over all of her bags (all of two—she had never really cared much for material things), "I think I'm ready," she said finally.
"Well," said Jenna, her face somewhat saddened by the news, "I'll let everyone know."
---
---
The bright yellow sun that appeared from behind the horizon the next day really, really, was not the best for Isaac's hangover. The only reason he hadn't sworn off alcohol completely was for the fact that his convictions dissolved when he set his eyes on the stuff. He really enjoyed alcohol, he did. Hangovers sure were hell, though.
He had risen early at the request of his friends, and now stood in the path of Sol's dawning fury. He groaned and covered his eyes with his hands.
"Cheer up, man," said a loud voice on his left. He groaned again, and in peeking between his fingers managed to glare at Garet. He never had understood how his friend escaped the wrath of the hangover.
Maybe it's a Mars thing, he thought bitterly, as he had never seen Jenna with a hangover either.
"Isaac, Garet, please pay attention," someone snapped. He looked up to see Felix's scowl before the older adept's eyes darted somewhere else.
"Someone's in a pissy mood," muttered Garet, so only Isaac could hear. He couldn't help but grin at his friend's remark.
"Please continue, Jenna," Felix said flatly, looking down at the young woman who stood beside him.
"Yeah, so, as I was saying…" She glared in Isaac's direction before continuing.
The entire group of companions stood, side-by-side, in a circle at Vale's town square. As soon as the people had given the town a square, the young heroes would convene on the spot to discuss any one thing that needed discussing. Today, the heroes gathered to discuss the departure of one, or more perhaps, of their own.
Jenna had called the meeting. She felt it only fair seeing as how Felix had called one for Piers before he had left.
After several minutes of Sheba voicing her plans, the conversation had turned to the aspect of others leaving with her. Ivan had voiced his need for departure due to Jenna's urging, and Mia had spoken up of her own free will. Just as Mia had spoken, Garet had as well, wishing to "see her home to Imil." Mia did accepted his offer, but not without burning cheeks. Jenna had just begun to speak before Isaac so rudely interrupted.
"I think I should come, too. I want to give everyone their proper goodbyes, you know?" Jenna looked up at Felix, "What do you think, brother?"
Felix looked down at her, startled, "You know I'll go where you will," he said simply. Jenna rolled her eyes at him and turned toward the others.
"You, Isaac?"
"Well," he shrugged, "if you and Garet are going…" Isaac let his sentence trail off. He had said all he needed. Jenna then turned her attention toward Piers, but before she could say anything, he let out a little chuckle.
"I did just return, but seeing as how you are all leaving, I do not think I have much of a choice."
Sheba smiled uncomfortably, "I guess that settles it, then."
---
---
Please, please, please tell me what you think. I'm really needing some helpful criticism (praise is good, too). I can only get better if you review!
Thanks bunches, I'll be back (soon, I hope) ;)
~riais