C-to the-H-to the-a-p-t-e-r, Girl, it's so late!

Pushing Forward

IOE: Hey, guys! Remember me? Well, I missed this fic for…oh, has it been 2 years? So I decided to continue it! I might even go back and fix up some chapters if I can because some parts were dreadful.

Flotsam: The cobwebs… cough, cough

IOE: Anyways, my format isn't so familiar to me. Seems a lot…smaller, even though it's size 10 Arial, double-spaced. Huh. So, um, I've improved writing-wise, so this shouldn't be so painful! Fehize, especially, I missed you.

Feizhi: So did I, to be honest.

IOE:Also, I'm going to say, just for the record and incase I forget, nu-uh, no pairing between Nathaniel and Sheba. I was just messing with you in the last chapter. Still, I want them to bond, and have Nathaniel become more acquainted with Felix, because they, too, have similarities. Enough chatter! Disclaimer, please?

Flotsam: Disclaimer: Ignira of Esperon, the author of this fic, does not own Golden Sun. Mmkay?

"The others left you down here?!" exclaimed Jenna.

Thinking quickly, Piers turned to Nathaniel.

"Go to the nearest town and get some food. Now," he said fiercely. Piers could see the fear and disgust in Nathaniel's eyes. How could people, especially those devoted to a pure, holy life, do something like this? Nathaniel turned to Sheba, who was nearest to him.

"I'll need a second pair of arms. We should bring down as much food as possible," he said. Sheba gave him a quick nod and was up the ladder in a flash. Nathaniel left right after the Wind Sorceress.

Piers stared at the men. How long had they been down there? He realized that the air was stale.

"We need to give them some fresh air," he said.

"We can't bring them upstairs," said Felix, "Their bodies are too fragile, even if we use Psynergy."

"Whirlwind," said Hamma. Her blue aura swirled, and a moderate gust of wind circled the center of the room. The air seemed fresher.

The men tried to speak to Hamma, but she shushed them. Piers saw in her eyes a mixture of fear and determination. Her eyes pierced their faces, and her aura swirled.

Felix seemed to remember something.

"Jenna, where is the nearest town?" he asked.

"Altin," his sister replied, and then she realized that neither Nathaniel nor Sheba probably knew so. Piers watched her rush out of the room to direct Sheba and Nathaniel.

Piers' eyes went back to Hamma. Her expression became more and more serious. She spoke.

"After I left," began she, "A group of Adepts acquainted with the other students came to the temple on several occasions to rest and worship before venturing into the desert. The others didn't know at first, but the Adepts were raiding small Altin mines in the desert looking for Psynergy stones…."

Jenna returned. Hamma continued:

"When my students found out, they refused to allow the raiding party to rest here. The Adepts roughed them up a little, but didn't want to do much harm to holy people and had to oblige. They ventured into the desert. They returned several hours later asking for help. It was apparent that something was wrong because the Adepts did not look well. These three refused to let the others bring supplies into the mines to help. After arguing, and several pupils leaving anyway, a few of the students left locked these three in the basement and left to help. Obviously, they never returned."

Piers shivered. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if the party had not arrived sooner. He noticed something else in Hamma's eyes.

"Hamma, don't feel guilt," he said. Hamma shook her head.

"Of course I feel guilt, but what I really need to focus on is restoring my pupils," she said, taking a deep breath. Her blue aura swirled as she gave the students a tender look. Piers knew she was telling them something telepathically.

Ivan returned with a bucket of water. As he started to descend the ladder, Piers Frosted the surface of the water to prevent it from spilling. Hamma gently took the water, broke the ice at the top, and began to gently pour water down each of her pupils' throats.

"We should investigate the mining area," said Felix. Piers was about to suggest the same thing.

Isaac, fully dressed and packed, knocked on the door.

"Kiri?" No answer. He knocked and called again and again. There was no answer each time. He sighed. Was she playing a game?

"Kiri, I'm going to open this door," he called, and then proceeded to open the door to her inn room. He looked around. Kiri appeared to be absent. Her bags were neatly placed next to the door. The bed was a mess; there appeared to be pieces of food on it, and the covers were in a mess. The top quilt was lying in a messy heap on the floor. Beside the bed, the bedside table was on the floor, but the lamp was sitting beside the bed next to a book. One the other side of the bed, the window let in gorgeous rays of sunlight. The window was open all the way to let in a healthy breeze. Isaac imagined that Kiri liked to feel the heavens near her while she slept.

Seeing that the miniature Uranus Adept--or Proficient, as Erutuns called it—was absent from her trashed room. He decided not to wait for her and go into town. He needed to go, anyway—he was starving. He started to leave, but then realized that only Kiri had money, so he headed into his room and grabbed a few things he didn't need. Closing the door behind him, he left the inn.

Outside the small inn, it was a beautiful morning. There were people everywhere in the town. The scent of the three rivers running through the town met his nostrils, along with the scents of the city's foods…and garbage. While Isaac would always prefer the country life, the environment of big city by the water was always an overwhelmingly good feeling.

He asked the woman nearest him where the nearest shop was. After giggling and giving him a sly look, she gave him the directions. Isaac thanked her and quickly left. He couldn't shake the feeling of a pair of eyes on his backside.

He turned a corner to find a whole street of shops. Vendors called to pedestrians, trying to make a sale. Isaac soon found the proper shop for buying and selling and managed to get decent prices for his items. Further down the street was a bakery. He entered it and bought himself breakfast, and then left. As soon as he exited the door, he heard interesting sounds from the nearest alley. Munching on his breakfast, he peaked in.

A group of youths, from children to adolescents, were gathered around two young Adepts using Psynergy to fight each other. Several members of the crowd threw down very small purple rocks, perhaps Psynergy stones, onto the battle ground.

Isaac was fascinated. It was some sort of children's Adept tournament!

He squinted to see Kiri coming towards him. She had a new pack now, and her pockets were filled with little Psynergy stones.

"Hi! Sleep well? I was off to visit relatives while we were in town, and then I saw this on my way back and decided to place bets!" she greeted.

Isaac sighed.

"Kiri, we really should get going," he said.

"Sure, sure!" she said, and they began to head back. Isaac finished his breakfast, satisfied with his purchase. Kiri started to whistle.

"So, you were visiting relatives?" he asked. Kiri nodded.

"My aunt's family lives here. I stopped by to say hi and all. They gave me some stuff and some more money to give to you," she said. Isaac gave her a look. As though reading his mind, she said:

"I told them you were an amateur cleric in our town and a friend of Carver's on a pilgrimage to the Uranus Shrine. They think me and Grandpa are guiding you about this far and then you'll go the rest of the way."

"And they believed you?" Isaac asked incredulously. Kiri shrugged.

"Grandpa's very religious. They'd believe that he would guide a priest to a shrine. It wouldn't be the first time," she replied.

Isaac had no idea. He wondered if Kiri was lying.

"You know, that's the reason I live with Grandpa. My family wanted me to have more of a religious influence in my life. Didn't you wonder why the daughter of a merchant travelling the world would live like I do with Grandpa?" she asked.

Isaac shook his head. He hadn't. He suspected, however, that Carver's influence barely worked, between Kiri's self-interest, lying to her elders, and recent gambling

"My grandfather believes in simplicity. He gave away most of the money he got from my father and kept a small portion for emergencies and the like. He could live in a fine house here, but he'd prefer to live a simpler life. It's a little more spiritual," she explained.

Isaac remembered Carver saying a prayer to himself before eating the other day during his lunch with Kiri and Carver. He also recalled that during the shopping that followed luncheon, Carver crossed himself each time he exited a building.

"Oh, I just remembered!" cried Kiri with excitement.

"What?" asked Isaac.

"I helped a boy back at the alley tournament, a Pluto Proficient. He said he used to have this really neat scale that could come in handy when he and his Neptune Proficient friend went exploring along the river. After his friend left, it was useless to him because he's not a Neptune Proficient. So, he buried it. He gave me a map to show me where he buried it," she said, pulling out a wadded ball of paper from her pocket.

"Kiri, neither of us is a Neptune Proficient," said Isaac. Kiri nodded.

"But, we'll need one if we want to enter the shrine," she said, "And this item could really help."

Isaac felt like he was back in Weyard on his quest. Four sacred areas, special items, and one Adept for each place. Suddenly, Isaac felt homesick. This time, he couldn't even go back home just to see his mother this time, though. He was in a completely strange place where he didn't know anyone. What were they doing now? Isaac miserably imagined his friends scouring the corners of the world, looking for him in vain.

"You haven't told me too much about where you're from. What is it called, Weird?" Kiri asked.

Isaac shook his head. They were nearly to the inn.

"Weyard."

"Tell me about it," Kiri said.

Nathaniel and Sheba had finally reached the temple. The ship lowered. (A/N: they figured it was faster to use the boat than to run. Plus, it saves energy) He and Sheba carefully carried the food they'd bought from Altin off of the ship and into the temple grounds.

Mia and Ivan came out to meet them and help carry in the food. They carefully brought it down the ladder. Sheba and Nathaniel followed.

Nathaniel looked around. Torches and candles were lit. The three thin men were lying on blankets. Hamma was carefully sitting them up and gently pouring water down their throats. Nathaniel looked around. The others were missing.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"In the Lamakan Desert," replied Ivan.

"Why in Lemuria's name are they in there?" asked Nathaniel incredulously.

"What happened to these men?" asked Sheba, looking down on the three. One tried to speak, but Hamma quieted him.

Hamma then explained what happened to the monks.

"Garet, Felix, Piers, and Jenna headed for the desert to investigate. I stayed with my sister and Mia stayed to heal," said Ivan.

"I don't understand. Felix told me that even Adepts are in danger surviving that desert. How can normal people go in there to mine without dying?" asked Sheba.

"Altin mining companies have hired a few Water Adepts to maintain a cooler air around them. Once underground, it's supposed to be cooler," explained Hamma, "We've had mining groups come through here for a while now. Some entrepreneurs and scientists think there can be benefits to harvesting Psynergy stones."

Mia opened a small jar of soup. Hamma quickly seized it. Mia listened to the chest of one of the students.

"Hamma, you must feed them a very small portion," warned Mia.

"Why?" asked Sheba, kneeling next to the men.

"It'll upset their system. They'll die if we try and feed them too much," explained Hamma.

Nathaniel wondered if they would have to take some of the food on the ship with them or have it be wasted.

"We bought all this food..." he said.

"I don't think we'll be going anywhere soon. Isaac will have to wait. Once it's time to leave, we'll see if my students are well enough to consume the rest of the food before it runs out," said Hamma, sitting up one of the thin men and carefully pouring soup down his throat.

"Sister, we can't stay that long. Isaac needs us," said Ivan.

Hamma sighed.

"I'm beginning to think that I should stay at the temple and have you all go without me," said she, "because I simply can't imagine how I'll be able to restore these three before it's too late for Isaac."

"Sister, as much as I don't want to part, I think that soon, that should probably have to happen," said Ivan. There was silence between them. Nathaniel assumed that the conversation continued telepathically.

"It's getting dark," observed Garet.

Jenna wasn't sure whether it was the slight cold that came with the desert's night or the creepy feeling that made her shiver. She and Garet were a little separate from Piers and Felix.

"It feels like something's wrong," she said.

"Yeah…and it feels like there's a slight…" Garet couldn't find the word.

"A tug. I feel a small tug from where we're going," whispered Jenna.

"Are you scared?" asked Garet, giving her an odd look.

"Why shouldn't I be? The students never returned. People were messing with Psynergy stones in an evil desert. It's nighttime and we're headed to where they probably disappeared," she replied.

"And the tugging. That's scary," added Garet. Jenna didn't want to talk about the tugging, even acknowledge it. Thinking about it made it seem that much scarier.

"Are you scared?" asked Jenna.

"Not really," said Garet nonchalantly. He shrugged. Jenna gave a nervous laugh.

"You don't need to act macho. No one's judging you're manliness."

Garet glanced at her.

"Maybe I want to make you feel better," he said.

Jenna rolled her eyes and giggled.

"Of course, I feel much safer with Garet around. He's not afraid of anything. Except for me. And his mom. And his grandmother. And his sister. Oh, and trees," she teased.

"You'd be scared, too, after what we went through in Kolima," said Garet.

"So there was a curse turning people into trees and a big one wanted to get you, too. Big deal. We went into a village filled with werewolves at night one time. I wasn't scared," said Jenna.

Jenna felt her skin crawl as Garet put his arm around her.

"Yes, you were," he said, chuckling.

Just then, Jenna heard something from the east. She turned to see a dark shadow rushing towards them. Garet withdrew his arm from Jenna and drew his sword as it approached. Jenna squinted. It was some sort of dog, perhaps a coyote. It was sort of limping. Jenna winced as something flew off of its foot. It looked almost like… a bone.

Jenna turned to see that Felix and Piers were looking at it, too. Jenna heard Garet say under his breath:

"It's eyes!"

His stance loosened.

Jenna thrust out her arm.

"Beam!"

A jet of light shot out and slammed the animal in the face and it fell. The four Adepts ran to see what it was. As the thing began to rise, Jenna froze. Parts of it were still on the ground. She could now see what Garet was talking about. Its eyes were missing. Sockets gazed at nothing. The canine-like beast gave a howl. It shook Jenna's soul. She felt that she couldn't move. She could only gaze in horror as the thing ran with a more pronounced limp towards them. An awful smell greeted them. Jenna recalled the serpent's lair at Gaia Rock. The stink of the serpent's victims that littered the floor. The dog charging at them was rotting.

Garet began to charge, his sword at the ready. Jenna reached out and wanted to warn him, but she felt numb.

Garet's sword gave out a howl. There was a flash of light and the dog was consumed by the sword's Inferno. It's smoking remains lay in the desert sands.

Jenna rushed toward it. The terrible stench of melting flesh assaulted her nose. She covered it and examined the remains. They began to twitch, but then lay still. Jenna assumed it was because the parts had been broken down too much to animate.

"Get away from there. We need to press on," said Felix softly. Jenna let him tug her away and they continued on.

Not too long after that, Piers said:

"The east."

They looked as one to the east to see three dogs rushing towards them.

She, Jenna, and Garet both immediately cast fire Psynergies while Felix and Piers drew their weapons. Piers sheathed his Excalibur, seeing that Felix's Sol Blade was out. The Sol Blade did quick work finishing off the hounds.

"I think that we will be seeing more and more of those things as we get closer," speculated Piers.

Jenna felt the same way.

It was nearly night now, and they had finally reached the entrance to the mine. Felix and Garet carried torches. Several tools lay outside of the cave, partially buried by the desert sand. Several crates were nearby, filled with Psynergy stones. The four of them gazed into a hole dug by miners. There was a terrible stench coming from it.

"Should we go in?" asked Jenna with uncertainty. She didn't want to at all. The whole reason they came here was to figure out what happened to the miners, but after facing a whole slew of what Jenna assumed were reanimated corpses of desert animals until reaching this point, there was hardly any doubt about what they would encounter in the cave. The four coyotes had only been the beginning. The four had been assaulted by animated buzzard corpses, snake corpses, giant spider corpses, and even more coyote corpses, along with whole skeletons of other desert animals. Jenna did not want to even think about what would be encountered in the cave.

"I'm for heading back," said Garet.

"We came all this way," said Felix, "and I think that we need to find out what's causing these creatures unrest."

"I think it's pretty simple. The desert's evil because of the Psynergy stones. These people were mining and came across them, probably a huge load of them. The stones caused trouble," said Garet.

Jenna wanted to agree with him, but…

"Garet, what about the pulling?" she asked.

"There are a lot of stones in the mine, I guess, so it attracts our Psynergy or something," said Garet.

"Even so," said Piers, "I don't feel right about leaving these people. Shouldn't we lay them to rest?"

"You mean we should set them on fire? That's the only thing that seems to work," said Garet.

Piers sighed, and solemnly nodded.

Jenna heard her brother make a small grunting noise. She looked to him to see him leaning into the cave.

"Felix-"

"I have a funny feeling," he said, interrupting.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Felix seemed to be weighing something in his head. Then he nodded.

"I'm going to go in, but not too far in. I just have a feeling that there's something in this cave…" he said.

"You-you can't be serious! Don't go in!" she called to her brother. It was too late. He was in the cave.

"Felix!"

The idea of her brother wandering around in that cave just to investigate some stupid feeling…. Jenna sighed.

"I'll just wait," she said irritably, sitting down, and then a thought occurred to her.

"Garet, you know how Psynergy stones would corrupt things, like in Kolima forest?" she asked.

"Yeah, weren't we talking about my bravery in there a while back?" he asked.

"Sure. Well, now that the Golden Sun is up, should Psynergy stones still be corrupting things?" she asked. Alchemy was unleashed now. Psynergy stones shouldn't be having problems conducting their energies into other objects. Kraden explained something like this to her a month or so ago.

"Well, this cave is evidence to the contrary," sighed Garet.

"But what if your speculation is wrong?" asked Jenna. Now her worry for Felix grew.

"Do you know what I just realized?" Piers suddenly spoke.

"What?" asked Jenna quickly, worried that it would be some other facts making her brother's situation seem worse.

Piers looked a little alarmed at Jenna's reaction.

"I was just thinking…. We only find large collections of stones in places of great power, like in the elemental rocks," Piers said slowly.

"And in Mt. Aleph," added Garet.

"And there's a large collection of stones apparently under Lamakan Desert, as those crates over there indicate," said Piers.

"So…you mean that this desert could have…or could be a place of elemental power?" asked Jenna.

"Or not. Perhaps it's a result of Alchemy. Maybe the underground Lamakan is a good environment for growing Psynergy stones," said Piers.

"But it's not like they would just form like any rock. Surely Psynergy or something is necessary, right?" asked Jenna.

"Hang on…you know Altin, the mining town? Deep in the mines, we found this area that looked…developed. The walls were perfectly chiseled with this special kind of stone. There was even a staircase," said Garet.

"Do you think that perhaps an ancient civilization such as Lemuria dwelled there?" asked Piers.

"Why not? There was this other cave, near Tolbi, where we found stuff like that way in the bottom of the cave," said Garet. Jenna imagined golden treasure rooms with ancient writings on the wall.

"Wait…Kraden told us once about deserts. Remember, Garet? Some of the researchers suspect that because of all the sand, they might have been oceans or lakes once," said Jenna. This was getting exciting.

"So, this area might have been an ancient civilization by the sea at one time! This area, where we're sitting, right here, could have been something like Aqua Rock or Mt. Aleph!" exclaimed Garet.

Jenna understood why her brother had ventured down there now. The pulling must have been ancient powers.

"So, why are there zombies and things around?" asked Garet.

"Perhaps it's unrest, or hallowed areas being disturbed," replied Piers.

Jenna's heart began to pound. She had to get Felix. He could be headed into deeper and deeper danger. She leapt up, drew her sword, and charged into the cave.

"We have to get Felix!" she heard Piers behind her cry, and then their footsteps followed hers.

IOE: And there ya have it! Am I little bit better this time..?

Feizhi: They were so close to Xian! How come I'm not in this fic?

IOE: I don't need you.

Flotsam: (squirts water like the adorable little Djinni he is)

IOE: Please, please, please review and keep reading!! It was so amazing to see people's thoughts and it just rocks that my crap is getting attention!

Flotsam: Peace out, home slice!