Matthew shoved his wet hair out of his face, it just had to rain, now of all times. The sun had already begun to set and now the storm clouds had covered up what little light was left.

Sighing in fustration, Matthew knelt down onto the cold stone, ignoring its increasing dampness. He picked up the ends of his yellow scarf, twisted it dry, and slung it over his shoulder, well out of the way of forming puddles. Sitting back onto his heels he gave a noncommitted wave of his hand.

Nothing.

He had bolted out of Kayla right after breakfast to practice his Psynergy, same as always. But really, he should've been home hours ago. Ever since Karis and Tyrell began to show off their progress by using Psynergy in casual every day activities, Matthew had gotten into the habit of heading out extra early with a packed lunch and coming home only when it got too dark to see properly much to his mom's dismay.

Karis has had Whirlwind down pat since day one when Mr. Ivan had given them all a lesson on the basics of Wind Psynergy. Tyrell seemed to have known how to use Fire Ball since he was old enough to flick his finger, he proved that by nearly burning down Patcher's Place. And what could he, Matthew, do?

Sure, he could use the Move and Growth Psynergy, but so what? Surely all Venus adepts could use those at a drop of a hat. He was supposed to be able to shatter the earth and uproot trees.

But no, even the basic Quake Psynergy was out of his reach. Mom, Dad, and many of the other Vale survivors kept reminding him that he was still a kid, that he had plenty of time, and not to be too hard on himself. But far from being comforted, it only made him burn with shame. Tomorrow would be his twelfth birthday and he was just waiting for the day when the "you're young" excuse would run out.

And What about Dad?

What sort of power did he have when he was Matthew's age? And Uncle Felix too, were they all causing earthquakes at a whim even before going on their legendary quest?

As if he could actually sit Dad down and ask him a few square questions. Matthew didn't talk much, he was fully aware of that; heck, he was practically known for it around Kaylay. But when he wanted to talk, the opportunity never seemed to come up. And Dad was never around for more than a few weeks at a time either, and most of that time was spent conversing about the Wise one or the Mourning Moon. It made the occasional pat on the head from him all the more important, and all the more infuriating. Mom seemed to have grudgingly accepted the matter-maybe because she had been part of the restoration of Alchemy-even if she did give Dad an earful every time he came home.

Even if he didn't get the full impact, Matthew knew enough to understand that monitering Mount Aleph was important. But would it really kill Dad to spend a day or two teaching him some earth Psynergy, or fishing, or even just sweeping the floor or washing the dishes?

Or has Dad already caught on to how much trouble Matthew was having and gave up on him ever becoming a competent adept?

He gets plenty of friendly elbows from Vale survivors for being the son of two Warriors of Vale. Maybe he was becoming complacent, he had taken great pains to not act like some kind of stuck up brat who was cruising on Daddy's legacy but maybe it wasn't enough.

Matthew had been kneeling on the ground for a long time and he was starting to feel the chill creeping in on him. He pulled his scarf over his chin for warmth. It was a funny piece of clothing really, what sort of person wore a bright yellow scarf? Dad had given it to him the day he had mastered the Move Psynergy. Tyrell often teased that if he ever had to find Matthew, he'd just ask for the kid with the spiky blonde hair and a matching scarf flapping in the wind. Even Karis would eventually find an ounce of mischief and tie his scarf into a big bow if she ever caught him asleep. But none of that embarassed Matthew, since the day Dad had tied it around his neck, he had never gone without it.

Drawing a deep breath, he held up his hands in front of him and began, once again, to concentrate. If he could just make one of the little pebbles littering the ground tremble, just a little-just one tiny little indication that he was making progress-maybe he would feel better.

But just as he was about to unleash what he hoped desperately hoped was some semblence of a Quake Psynergy, a loud of clap of thunder scared him. When he regained his bearings, he had lost his focal point and couldn't judge whether the pebble had moved so much as an inch. Resisting the urge to throw something, Matthew clambered to his feet. That last attempt had used up the last of his Psynergy, not that he had a large resevoir to draw from to begin with. Walking always seemed to help speed up the regeneration process.

Matthew's sides ached as if he had just ran a long distance. Whoever thought up the theory that Psynergy wasn't a strain on the body deserved to be kicked off one of the Elemental Lighthouses.

He couldn't tell if he was sweating, by now he was soaked to the skin and everything had turned a shade of gray. The cold wasn't so bad anymore though, he seemed to have gotten use to it. He marched back and forth, rain water splashing against his boots. However, as he was stewing in his anxiety, Matthew missed a particularly deep gouge in the ground. His foot slipped and sent him flailing, almost comically. He landed with a hollow thump, his ribs on fire as they met stone. After laying stunned for a moment, Matthew pushed himself up into a sitting position. If the Wise One decided that he also needed to be struck by lightning next, he was going to cry.

Rubbing his bruised ribs, Matthew glared at the pebbles he had been trying to move as if he could suddenly turn into a Mars adept and melt them into magma. He couldn't see any point in continuing practicing today; maybe he could just lay here a while until his side stopped hurting, or until the rain stopped, or until a Psynergy vortex came and swallowed him up.

His eyes began to smart and colored spots began to dance before him.

Colored spots?

Jolted into alertness, Matthew looked down to see that instead of some sort of hallucination, he was staring at a fire Djinn who was standing at his feet. Shaking water droplets from his eyelashes, he peered down at the little orange creature but try as he might he couldn't tell which Djinn it was, they all looked the same to him.

"Come on Matthew!" it chirped, jumping up and down, "Jenna's worried. It's getting dark and you'll catch a cold if you stay out in the rain."

Moving like a rusty machine, Matthew silently picked up the Djinn and hugged it to his chest. Mars Djinn always seemed to give off some warmth. He trudged the short distance back to Kayla, unaware that his grip on the Djinn was tightening until the fire spirit squeaked in protest. The streets of the town were empty as all the sane people were properly dry in the homes. Matthew had walked home with his head down often enough that he was willing to bet that he knew the number of stone flags between the the town entrance and his front door.

His fingers felt stiff as he started to turn the door knob. Should he put on a grinning facade as he walked in? Maybe he could say that he stayed out so late because he was finally starting to get the hang of things.

But before he could decide on any course of action, the door opened and he was promptly yanked inside.

"Matthew!" Jenna pulled him into a hug, ignoring that fact that he was dripping wet, "When the rain started I thought that you would head home but-just promise me that you won't stay out in this kind of weather."

As she peeled off the scarf that was plastered to Matthew's shoulders, he looked up to see two people sitting by the fireplace.

"Matthew, you'll get sick if you stay out in the rain", scolded Karis.

"Hey Matthew." called Tyrell at the same time.

Matthew managed a weak smile before taking the opportunity to turn away by setting down the Mars Djinn on a window sill.

"I'm going to toss these into the laundry basket." said Jenna as she hung Matthew's scarf and jacket over her arm, "Karis?"

"Sure thing." Karis hopped up and cast a mild Whirlwind on the clothes that Matthew still had on, drying them instantaniously.

"Karis stopped by my place before we came here. You should've seen the umbrella she had, it probably could've fit five people under it." said Tyrell as he threw a handful of sparks into the fireplace causing the flames to strengthen, "It looked like a giant ugly mushroom."

"Hey!" Karis snapped indignantly, "My father invented that! It was suppose to carry people into the air with wind Psynergy. It just...didn't work so I'm recycling it."

Upon seeing Tyrell and Karis perform their Psynergy so efortlessly, Matthew's smile faltered. He settled down onto the rug beside his friends as Karis continued to speak of what her fahter had been researching. He couldn't help but glance into a corner of the living room where his sword stood, untouched for weeks. Maybe Psynergy wasn't the only thing he was falling behind.

The three of them soon fell into a comfortable silence in the plesant warmthy of the fire. Somewhere in the kitchen, Jenna was shifting around pots and pans as she prepared dinner.

"Tyrell?"

Karis and Tyrell jumped, looked at each other; upon realizing that neither of them had spoken, they looked at Matthew in amazement. Under their shocked gazes, Matthew shrugged self conciously. Now that he thought of it, his voice did sound a bit thin from lack of use.

"Yeah, Matthew? What's up?" Tyrell said.

"Do you-" Matthew cleared his throat, "Do you want to pratice swords in the backyard?"

"Huh? Sure, I was getting bored of sitting around anyways." Tyrell stretched his arms and stood up, the energy in his voice returning.

Standing up as well, Matthew waved for Karis to follow. She didn't snow any interest in using swords but it was amazing what sort of tips Karis could give just from watching their movements.

The backyard was half covered by a canopy, completely protected from the rain. Matthew turned the pratice sword around a couple of times in his hand, it was much lighter than a real sword but as Mr. Garet said, 'it was never too late to get started'.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Tyrell yelled.

He lunged towards Matthew swinging his sword so hard that Matthew could feel the vibrations as he jumped to the side.

"Tyrell! You're not suppose to be hitting for real!" Karis shouted from where she was sitting on the steps, "You could've really hurt Matthew!"

"Don't be a spoil sport Karis!" Tyrell hopped back a few paces, "You weren't going to be hit by that were you Matthew? But I won't let you off that easy, I'm going to get you this time!"

Truthfully, Matthew didn't think that it was such a good strategy for Tyrell to call out every time he was going to attack. This time, Tyrell's blade grazed his leg-a much lighter blow as he had stopped playing around. Matthew swung his own blade around and managed to clip Tyrell gentlely on the shoulder.

They continued this way for a while, their movements very formulaic but anyone with eyes could see that none of it was instinctive yet. They were concentrating hard on utilizing the handful of moves that their fathers had taught them. Finally, Tyrell seemed to have become tired of all the carefully planned steps, swung wildly and flung Matthew's sword from his hand. They both stood and watched the sword spinning through the air with a mixture of horror and awe.

When it finally imbedded itself into the grass, Matthew and Tyrell grinned at each other. Matthew ran into the rain, plucked the sword out of the ground, then dashed back before he could become too wet. He supposed that he had lost that round but he didn't mind as much as he thought he would. Training with Tyrell always seemed to come off as fun. It really was a shame that they didn't share the same elemental abilities. Or would be worse, having someone who could be a glaring example that Venus Psynergy was not as hard as Matthew felt it was.

"Come inside kids, dinnner!" Jenna shouted from inside the house.

Once they were all settled down at the dinner and had tucked in, Karis turned to Matthew.

"My dad's coming over tomorrow. He wanted to speak with Isaac and Garet but he also wanted to be there to wish you a happy birthday."

Matthew smiled in response, he liked Mr. Ivan. The man was a learned scholar but still had his moments of delightful quirkiness.

"That's right, Isaac and Garet are coming down from their cabin as well." Jenna passed a bowl of mashed potatoes around the table.

"Alright! It's been ages since they came for a visit." Garet stuck his fork haphazardly into a piece of meat, "My old man's always going on about how up there it's all work and no play."

Though he was still smiling, Matthew couldn't help but feel dread sliding down his spine. Dad and Mr. Garet were sure to ask about how his Psynergy was progressing. If he lied then Dad would know, or if he didn't then he'd want Matthew to show him.

Once the dishes were cleared away, Jenna shooed them all upstairs.

"Off to bed if you want to wake up early enough to meet your dads." she had said.

Karis got the guest room while Matthew and Tyrell set up a spare bed in Matthew's room.

Sometimes Matthew was really jealous of Tyrell, it seemed like he could fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Matthew on the other hand, stayed awake long after Tyrell's snores filled the room.

Dad was coming home.

Now that he had a quiet moment to reflect, he wasn't sure if he dared to be happy for the occasion. After all, he was just going to leave in a week or two. Not to mention that they wouldn't really get to spend any time together during his stay. Sure, he let Matthew help him out with work or tag along if he took a trip to Patcher's Place, but no leisure time.

Was a game of catch really too much to ask?

And then there was the issue of his Psynergy training. As much as he hated to admit it, Matthew was getting the sneaking suspicion that it might not be possible for him to advance without asking for tutelage. Uncle Felix hasn't been around for quote some time so who was the only experienced Venus adept he could ask?

Sighing, Matthew rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head.

When had birthdays become this depressing?