Now what? Let's find out! (pathetic summary, I know)


"Who do you think she is?" Finn asked, toying with his crossbow. "And why do you think our crystals don't work?"

"There's so much we don't know right now," Piper sighed.

"Anybody up for some glowing grubs?" Junko said, holding up a flat rock with dead, glowing bugs on it. He picked one up and ate it.

"No thanks Junko. The people of Ordon village have been feeding us well," Aerrow said, trying to keep from grimacing at the dish.

"Besides Junko," Stork warned, peeking over the wallop's shoulder, "They might be carriers of the 'Death of Doom' sickness." Junko spat the bug out and dumped his dish on the ground.

Just barely seconds after this, Renado came out of the house and walked up to the group. "I have not met you yet. I am Renado." Aerrow introduced them, and then inquired about Tina. She'd really worried everyone when she just collapsed.

"I expect she'll be fine. Just watch her," he winked.

"Why?" Finn asked.

"Do you really think I'm going to make it that easy for you?" Renado chuckled. "I will stay here for a little while. If the girl faints again, then I'll take her with me when I go back to my own village."

Renado went back into the little house, and a few moments later Tina came out.

********

My legs felt a little weak, but as the day progressed, that went away. I found the six teens just far from the house, where they were variously sprawled on the grass.

"You can sure handle a sword," Aerrow commented. I shrugged.

"I haven't met all of you," I said, and they were introduced to me. Stork intrigued me, what with his pessimism. I found it really kind of funny, in a predictable way. The only other one to catch my attention more than the others was Aerrow. He was leader, after all, but he also had those blades. Was he a good swordfighter too? I wondered. I'd have to ask sometime. And the really weird thing about him was that he and I looked almost similar. I mean, between the red hair (or, almost red hair for me) and our eyes being almost the same colour, we could almost be siblings. Piper seemed to notice this too, as did Radarr, who peered at us queerly, but neither brought it up.

We didn't sit around for to long though. I itched to get up and do something. The sun had nearly set by now. I noticed Aerrow looking at my hair, so I looked down at the strands that always fell over my shoulders. The sunlight glinted off it like liquid copper. It had a similar effect on his as well. In fact, we all looked like we had halos. Finn's looked especially nice, but he also had shiny, blond hair.

I pulled my knees into my chest. "How do you think we'll get home?" I asked.

"I was hoping that guy who brought you here could take us back, the way he brought you here, but I don't think he'd do us any favours," Aerrow said. "Other than that, I don't think any of us have a clue." Piper shrugged.

"And without our crystals, we don't have really any way of protecting ourselves." My eyebrows knotted.

"Don't you know how to use your weapons without crystal power? I mean, Finn," I addressed him; "You could easily learn to use a powered-down crossbow." Then I turned to Aerrow. "And you should be able to adjust to using a sword fairly quickly."

"What about us?" Junko asked.

"Well," I thought for a moment, "Without crystals to make things stronger," I continued slowly, "You probably don't need your weapon, or at least, you don't need them to work. Still wearing them would protect your knuckles."

They all nodded, starting to warm to the idea. "Come on. Let's see if the villagers have anything for us to practice with," I suggested. The others agreed and got up with me.