You know what? I'm not in the mood for writing a disclaimer, so sue me.

Camelot owns Golden Sun. Lucky bastards….

"This SUCKS!" Sheba pounded a fist into the mattress, pouring all of her fear and rage and frustration into the punch. She laid back and stared at the ceiling. "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this city, I hate this bed, I hate this room, and I hate… I wanna kill Babi… I wanna go home. I hate Angara."

She heard her stomach growl and was taken by a sharp, painful hunger. In fact, her last meal was a banana, back when she was in her own bedroom. She had skipped lunch and dinner.

There was a knock on her door. "Come in." She responded flatly.

An elderly woman walked in. "I know you must be frightened…"

Frightened? Sheba thought. I'm beyond pissed.

"… but I'm going to try and make your stay here as comfortable as possible…"

Good luck with that.

"… I am Karen. I am going to be taking care of you while you are here…"

Great. A nanny. Do they think I'm five years old?

"… to start, would you like something to eat?"

Now, you're talking, lady. "Yes, please."

Karen smiled. "Nice girl. You're name is Sheba, am I correct? Forgive me, for my memory is not what it once was, twenty years ago!" She glanced around her guest's room. "My, what a dull room. I know, I'll bring you some tapestries and a firelight with your food. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Sheba shrugged apathetically. "I guess so…" She just wanted some food.

Karen nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

Sheba tugged at her robe. It was filthy and dingy from the trip from Lalivero to Tolbi. Now, she wished she had bothered to bring a change of clothes… she would have to wear Angaran clothes. She shuddered at the thought. How disloyal to her hometown… And her hair was stringy and full of nasty grease, which was worst than usual, since it was getting near that time of the month, again. When Karen comes back, I'll have to ask her for a hairbrush. She tried combing her fingers through her hair, but she couldn't get halfway down before her fingers became tangled in the mess. Gross. I should have pinned it back in the desert. I can actually feel grains of sand in my hair.

She lay back down and turned onto her side, staring at the blank, white wall. Where was Karen with that food? Sheba was starting to feel like her stomach was going to cave in if she didn't get anything to eat, soon. She turned her attention toward a small window that was adjacent to the wall with her door. It was a tiny window with a view toward the east. Sheba peered out it, and could see the Karagol in the distance. This land was so… alien.

A harsh thought came to her. They probably aren't going to free me until that frigging Lighthouse is finished. I might be here for over a year! In a moment of absurdness, she pondered about what it would take to escape this place and go back to Lalivero. She laughed out loud at the thought. Heh. Maybe it'll be like jailbreak.

There was another knock on the door. "Yeah?" Sheba called, though she knew who it probably was.

Karen answered back "Dear, could you open your door for me? My hands are quite full, I'm afraid I can't grab the doorknob." Sheba opened the door wide to let the old woman in. Her arms were filled with bread, a bowl of soup, a torch lamp, and some curtains for her window. "I know this isn't much, but this is all that I can carry up those stairs."

"Oh no, this is actually much more than I expected. That was really nice of you." Sheba was genuinely surprised by the hot meal and pretty silk tapestries. Maybe when I go home, I can bring some stuff home with me. She had been told by Faran that Tolbi was a very wealthy city with lots of territories, but wealth was something that she found hard to imagine. How could one land grow so rich while it's neighbors barely grow enough food to feed themselves? Was Tolbi really that greedy?

"Okay, my turn. I spy with my little eye…" Jenna scanned the entire area. "Something… brownishgray."

Felix stated the most obvious answer. "A rock."

"No. Be more creative."

"All right then, is it Kraden's robe?"

"Oh, come on. You suck at this game."

Felix rolled his eyes. "We've been playing I Spy for a whole hour. How about playing Mum, instead?"

Jenna pointed up toward the treetops. "I spied a raccoon up in the branches."

"What? You expect me to be able to pick out a raccoon in the tree?"

"Will you two shut up for five frigging minutes?" Menardi shouted over her shoulder. "You're not making this any easier on yourselves! Now, the sooner you two stop playing games back there, the sooner we get out of this goddamn forest!"

Felix groaned. "For once, agreed." Mogall Forest was starting to creep him out a little bit. "Hey, where are we going anyway?"

"Gondowan." Saturos replied bluntly.

"What for? All that's down there is desert and jungle."

"And Venus Lighthouse," Menardi snapped at him. She sounded much more irritable than usual. "Forget about what our ultimate goal is?"

"And something else…" Saturos said, much calmer than Menardi. "I've heard rumors of some…thing conveniently near Venus Lighthouse that sounds…interesting. Perhaps even…useful to us."

Felix wanted to ask what is was, but he knew better than to push these two with a million questions all the time. And he knew Alex wouldn't step in to call a halt if Saturos and Menardi were to suddenly decide to beat him up. He just shrugged and followed along; pausing to quickly glance over his shoulder to make sure they weren't leaving Kraden in the dust. But Jenna and Kraden were keeping pace just fine. Felix still faltered. What was this strange feeling telling him that Saturos and Menardi weren't telling him something?

Well, there's chapter one for ya. Some feedback would be excellent. Tell me what you liked and didn't like. Remember: no reviews, no next chapter! Meeheehee. XD