A.N: hi everyone! You get an early chapter. It will be a bit short but a chapter all the same. Got some new reviews! I apologise if the horse terms I use are incorrect, I know more about the human brain than I do horses. please tell me if I get anything wrong, I only know that a stallion is a male horse and a mare is female (googled it). Queries answered at the end. I do not own Golden Sun. On with the story.

6. Horses. Thomas

We follow Lucy to the stables. I never knew that Port Rago even had stables. Jason, Carmen and I all wish to see this unknown feature of the little harbour. Lucy leads us behind the inn and we see a row of horses in stalls. She walks up to a grey stallion with blue eyes and strokes his nose. He has a white mark on his head that looks strangely like a raindrop.
"This is Wave, He's about 5 years old. I've trained him since last year and he is really fast. I'd like to take him with us." Lucy says. We look at each other.
"Lucy," Jason says "He's beautiful but I don't think that you can take him from his owner, I know you've trained him but his owner would miss him." She laughs at this. Then replies.
"Don't worry, my Uncle Jim owns the stables, Wave is my horse!" She giggles again.
"Okay, but even though he is your horse and he's fast would he be any use if we didn't have horses? Also, if he's attacked we can't waste all of our herbs on him, he'll just get hurt if he can't fight back. What would you do if he was attacked?" Carmen reasons.
"I'll get him to kick the attackers in the guts, he's a Water Horse. An elite breed of horses that are trained for Water Adepts. He can fight, and swim a bit, plus he doesn't get scared by monsters or psynergy, they can also withstand very low temperatures. However, Water Horses can't stand heat and are terrified of fire. All of our horses are elemental." She continues. "And you can buy horses too, they're very cheap to a good owner. Only 500 coins each. That's cheap as far as Elemental Horses go." So that's why he has a raindrop mark on his head! He's a Water Horse!
"Okay, we have enough money from all of those monster battles in the Mars Lighthouse. We'd better get our own element horses though. Me an Air Horse, Jason an Earth Horse and Carmen a Fire Horse." I say.
"Okey-dokes, now Jason, we only have one Earth Horse, his name is Khonsu and he's 5 years old. He's over in stall 19." We walk over to a dark brown stallion with green eyes. Jason looks at him, the horse looks calm. Jason inspects him, looking at the leg muscles and checking it has enough body fat to keep it warm. I notice that it has a white mark shaped like a triangle on it's head, is that the mark of an Earth Horse?
"Earth Horses," Lucy begins "Are calm creatures, they are loyal and strong, they can climb mountains like billy-goats and get through any forest, also, like other element horses, they can fight and don't flinch at the use of psynergy. Unfortunately, if there is a storm, they'll freak out a bit, Air being Earth's opposite." She tells Jason. He weighs this information up in his head. I can tell that he's thinking about whether or not to buy Khonsu. He finally comes to a decision.
"He's beautiful, I'll take him. He looks like a strong horse." and with that he hands Lucy a wad of cash, she opens the stall door so Khonsu can meet his new master properly.

"Tom, you're next." Lucy tells me. She walks over to the entrance of the stables. "Here are our many Air Horses, but the one I think that you'll like is over in stall 3. Meet Storm." We walk over to stall 3. I notice that all of the Air Horses are black haired and have grey eyes. They also all have a white mark on their foreheads, shaped like a lightning bolt. Storm is a small mare, I initially think that she is a pony but up close I can see that, although she is small for a horse, far too large to be a pony. She is ready and alert with a kind of intelligence in her stormy eyes. She is obviously a fast runner as she looks like she has too much energy.
"Air Horses will ride through any storm or wind with no problem. They are faster than the vast majority of animals and monsters. No other horses can keep pace but they will never ride through a rocky area or forest, they get claustrophobia. And of course, they can fight and don't flinch at psynergy. Storm is 5. She was recently entered in a racing competition before Bilibin and Morgal went to war. She came third, second place went to the Mayor of Kalay's son's horse. The winner was an owner who didn't reveal his identity but he said that he was an Air Adept with an Air Horse." It takes no time for me to decide, soon I am handing over the 500 coins and standing next to Storm, giving her a handful of oats to eat. Finally, Lucy turns to Carmen.
"We only have a few Fire Horses, let's go have a look shall we? We'll start with stall 13." We all follow Lucy and head over to stall 13. There are three horse with hazel eyes and light brown hair. They each have a mark on their heads of what seems to be a fire.
"Here is stall 13's occupant, Ra." She shows Carmen a large, confident-looking horse. Carmen looks into his eyes. Her violet eyes meeting his hazel ones. She is looking into his spirit, seeing how strong he is inside.
"Fire Horses can withstand temperatures up to 70 degrees Celsius, they are mildly resistant to fire but they will not go near any large expanse of water unless they are very thirsty, and they hate cold weather with a passion." Carmen continues staring at the horse, it is an old Proxian way of determining how strong a person or animal is. If they look away before 2 minutes they are weak. Ra does not look away. Carmen smiles.
"I will take him. He is a strong horse." She says. She hands Lucy some cash.
"Alright! You've got your bag Lucy! Let's get going!" I say. We mount our horses and start to exit the stables. We get to the door when Lucy calls us back.
"Where are you going? It'll take ages to go overland. I'll hire us a boat." We look at her in disbelief, how can someone be so kind?
"Thank you Lucy!" Jason says, speaking for all of us.

I sit on the deck of the Mercury. Lucy's friend's boat. I look up at the night sky. The sea is calm and there is a warm breeze blowing from the south. I try to work out the odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hear Jason climb up from below deck and sit beside me.
"Can't sleep?" He asks.
"Nah. Jas, can I ask you something?" I reply.
"Sure. What is it little bro?"
"Did Lucy..."
""Did Lucy..." what?"
"Did Lucy say anything about me?" I blurt out.
"She did say something about "The awkward boy with the staff."" He says. My heart drops.
"Oh." I sigh.
"Wait, do you like Lucy?" He asks, grinning
"Oh shut up!" I shout at him. He raises one eyebrow at me. "Well, maybe a bit..." I say.
"Aww! My widdle bruvver's in wuv!" He laughs, trying his best to annoy me. "Oh... Don't worry bro. I'm just teasing. Look; You'll know what you feel about Lucy soon enough, and what she feels about you. Until then, don't dwell on the fact that she said that you're awkward. She's a funny girl and probably meant nothing by it. Remember, just wait and see what she's like. Don't blurt out something that you might regret." He tells me, ever the wise, older brother.
"'Kay, thanks Jason." I say, we both stand up and head to our quarters, and it feels like it is just us 2 brothers on the wide open sea.

A.N: Hope you liked it! comments now:

Syrup: Thanks for your compliments. Good shipping names. You haven't shown me "tons" I'm not that bad at spelling. (Now talking to everyone) you can create shipping names for the story. I'm not saying that I will use them, but you can go wild. PM me them of put them on the reviews. I'll put the best ones on the comments. Tom has narrated. I've fixed the mistake, hope your pleased!

Vampirewerewolf1: Love story is appearing. Thanks for your compliments. Bye!

Me: The next chapter will have a fight. Thanks for your compliments.

Anonymous: Thanks for your compliments. Yes, "Syrup" and I are brothers. He is NOT "older" than me. He's my identical twin (I'm honestly not joking, he really is) I guess he is 1 minute older but still... oh never mind! Thanks for your congratulations on my little bro. He's lovely. You've got Lucy down to a T. Glad you like my attempt at comedy, I normally fail.

Okay, that's done. See you later! :)