I'm setting Rydia aside for a little while.

(Insert gasp of shock and terror here)

I'm just out of ideas for her right now. Besides, I think Palom and Porom need more time in the limelight (Palom's my second fave, right after Rydia; it's a close tie).

This story is mostly about Palom and Porom, and their part in the adventure. It's going to be way different from the story and the twins you're familiar with, but I think it will tell a much more interesting story than the game had time to tell.

So, without further ado…

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Prologue

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"Palom, Porom, I want you two to come inside right now!"

"Aw, mom, we're having too much fun!" Palom whined.

Porom had to agree with her brother for once. "Yeah. There's nothing going on. There isn't even a cloud in the sky; it's not going to rain."

"It's not rain I'm worried about, dear," their mother said ominously, eyeing the clear skies with suspicion. "Just come in, please."

"Yes, ma'am," Porom consented. She stood up from the ground, brushed some dust and grass off her dress, and looked over at Palom. He was still practicing his fire spell on a blade of grass as if he hadn't even heard his mother.

"Palom, come on. We have to go in now."

"I'm staying out here."

Porom snatched her brother's hand, burning her own palm in the process, and tried to haul him to his feet. He jerked away from her.

"Stop that, Porom! Leave me alone!"

"Just 'cause you're older doesn't men you get to ignore mom!"

"You're both worrying too much!" Palom informed hotly. "Everything's going to be fine. I'm staying out here." He stomped his foot on the ground and turned away from his sister.

"Why are you always so mean to me?!" Porom demanded. She pushed Palom's back and he fell over on his hands and knees.

"Mom! Porom's pushing me!"

"That is quite enough from both of you," their mother insisted, stepping between the two. "I don't know what is coming, but I don't like it. I want you to come in, please."

"I'm staying out here," Palom insisted. He sat back down on the grass and pouted.

Mother was silent for a minute.

"Fine. You can stay out here. I'll leave the door unlocked for you," she said in as calm a voice she could. "Porom and I will be inside Come on, honey." She took Porom's hand and led her inside.

"I don't understand why he's always got to be so mean to me," Porom whined.

"You're not always so nice to him, either," mother pointed out.

"But he's always mean to me first."

"That's no reason to be mean back. You're a white mage, after all; your job is to take care of people."

Porom made an angry noise and flexed her throbbing hand.

"Come on," mother said, as she and Porom entered their small house. "Come in the kitchen and I'll show you how to make a good burn salve."

"Yes ma'am." Porom used her good hand to shut the door, unhook her green cape and hang it up on a peg nearby. She eyed the lock on the door. She turned the lock spitefully hard, locking Palom out of the house. She stared off angrily to the kitchen.

Outside, Palom was still casting his fire spell on grass. Of all the days he had been annoyed with Porom, this was probably the worst. Push him like that, will you…

He looked up at the sky. Just as Porom had said, there wasn't a cloud to be seen. He would be just fine out here, without them. Nothing was going to happen. The only things in the sky were some birds. A big flock of small birds, headed for the island.

Palom wondered vaguely if they would make for good target practice.

He watched them coming closer and closer. As they did, they began to take on a definite shape, and it was clear that it was really a small flock of large birds.

Big red birds, with white feathers on their heads that didn't flap their wings…

Palom realized that these weren't birds. They were something else entirely.

Palom stood up and watched them closely, wondering what they could be and what they could want. But if they wanted trouble, he would gladly give them some. After all, he was the most advanced student on the island: only a few weeks shy of turning six, and he already knew fire, blizzard, and thunder when his other friends were still learning to read. He was a great mage in his own right. He would dispatch these intruders if they were in fact hostile.

As the things loomed over the island, Palom saw what they really were. They were big ships that sailed through the air instead of in the water. It was pretty cool. He would have loved to go for a ride on one.

The ships landed a few minutes later, outside the city. He stood there waiting for something to happen. Nothing was going on yet.

It was quiet for a bit.

"Oh my god, run!"

"Flee for your lives!"

"Don't hurt me! Leave me alone!"

Palom was scared by all the screaming. The people on those ships did want trouble. He began chanting his fire spell and started off in the direction of the screaming. But he was stopped suddenly by a loud boom sound. He looked up and saw that one ship remained in the sky and was now raining fire on the city. And what fire it was: it looked like flaming rocks, hurtling to earth.

Palom wasn't just scared anymore. He was terrified. This was no place for a child like him; he could be hurt. As advanced as he was, his puny starter spells stood no chance against these ships. He ran for his house. Mother said that the door would be unlocked. He'd get inside and warn her and Porom, and then maybe they could figure out something together.

His path was suddenly blocked by one of the flaming cannon balls. He shrieked and fell on his back, staring in horror at the smoldering rock before him. It had nearly fallen on his head! He jumped back up and sped for the door.

In the house, Porom and mother were in the kitchen, preparing to hide in the basement. The whole house shook violently and something bright red and orange sprang to life outside the window. Porom was knocked to the floor and mother braced herself on the kitchen table. Mother gasped in alarm.

"No! Palom's still outside!" she cried.

There was a sound at the door, of the knob struggling to turn but jamming. Then there was pounding on the door.

"Hey! Let me in! Let me in! Open the door, please! I'm going to die!"

Porom felt her being sink into the floor. She had locked her brother out and now he was going to die. It was all her fault! She had to do something!

"Why did you lock the door, mom?! You said it would be open!" Palom yelled.

"I didn't lock the door," mother yelled back, though Palom probably didn't hear.

Porom leapt to her feet and ran for the door.

"Palom, Palom! I'm coming! Hang on!" she yelled to him and wrenched the lock back open. The door swung open and Palom fell into the doorway face first. Porom helped him scramble to his feet and they ran back into the kitchen together. Another tremor shook the house and they fell again.

Seeing that her children were both alive, mother ran to the trap door that led to the basement and pulled it open.

"Come on, both of you! Get downstairs, quick," she called to them. They both got back up and dashed to the trap door. They jumped down into the darkness below and Palom cast a fire spell to see by. They heard their mother jump down after them and then the trap door fell shut. All light disappeared except Palom's fire.

Mother pulled the twins close to her and held them tightly. Palom lost his concentration on his spell and the light went out. All three of them were crying.

"What's happening?" Palom wailed. "What's going on?"

"I… I don't know," mother admitted between sobs. "I don't… I don't understand either." She was still for a minute. Then she released Palom and started shaking Porom by the shoulders like a doll.

"You locked him out! How could you do that?! You nearly got him killed! Your bother nearly died, and it's your fault! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Porom was bawling; she couldn't say anything between sobbing and being shaken so violently. She managed to pull away from her mother and fell on the ground, her body racked with sobs.

Palom tried to dry his eyes and attempted a deep breath. First the city gets attacked by ships that sail in the sky, then one of their cannon balls nearly kills him, and then he finds his front door locked, and now it turns out that Porom was the one who locked it? He didn't know what to think first.

He never knew that Porom could be so heartless.

He sat down on the ground and hiccupped. He gazed in the direction if the trap door and wondered what on the Blue Planet was happening. The earth shook again with another impact nearby.

He wondered what could possibly happen next.

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The next day, the twins went with their mother to the tower, to see the Elder.

The two sat on a stone bench in the main room, waiting for their mother to return. Both were too dismal to say anything to each other. So they sat in silence for a long, long time.

There was finally some noise, footsteps and squabbling voices. The two looked up to see what was happening. Their mother, the Elder, and his two assistants appeared from around a corner. The white mage walked on a crutch, and the black mage had his arm in a splint.

"But, Rai, what would they want with it? Can they use it?" mother was asking.

"We don't know yet, Mira. We're trying to figure that out," the Elder answered. "There's just so much to do: debris to clean up, buildings to rebuild, wounds to treat, the dead to see to."

"And what you say of the twins doesn't help much," the black mage added.

"Dharma, please," the pink-haired white mage scolded, hurrying after the others on her crutch. "Elder Rai has enough on his mind without their antics."

"They're sitting right over there, Sheila," Dharma said, pointing to the twins across the room. Sheila blushed over her blunder.

The twins pretended not to notice, but in truth they felt like helpless burdens.

Mira looked over at her children, worried over their moods, and then turned back to Rai.

"What of this man, this dark knight? Tell me more of him," she requested.

"As far as I know, he is the captain of the Baronian Red Wings. The men called him Cecil," Rai informed.

"Cecil…" Mira whispered, testing the sound of the name. "A frighteningly gentle name for the man who caused us such pain and stole our most treasured possession," she growled.

Rai placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I looked the man in the eye, Mira. I don't think he wanted to hurt us."

Mira shrugged his hand off.

"How can you say that? That man appeared out of nowhere—without warning—and took our crystal! He killed people, Rai! He put m children in danger! How can you say he didn't want to hurt us?"

Rai smacked the back of Mira's head sharply, ending her rant.

"I am very well aware of the damage he did, sister. I didn't say that I was going to invite him over for tea, but I never said that I was going to damn him to hell either."

"You'd may as well. Everyone in this city would see him burn in hell for rest of eternity."

"It's not my place to say who's damned and who's not, Mira. I understand that you're upset—everyone in this city is upset—but I just can't deny what I saw in that man's eyes. I saw no evil, no hatred, no bloodlust in those eyes. Even as he ordered me to stand aside, to take our crystal, I saw sorrow, a great deal of confusion… He did not want to hurt us, Mira, I know it."

"Then why, brother?" she begged.

"…I do not know," Rai confessed.

The four mages all dropped their heads, exhausted.

The twins sighed together, as twins sometimes do. Palom folded his arms on top of the table and set his chin down on his arms.

"I know what they're talking about," he muttered, "but whoever that guy was who stole our crystal, I hate him. I'm gonna learn Firaga, just so that I can fry him if he ever comes back."

Porom sighed. She felt awful about locking Palom out of the house. She wished she could take it back; if she had known what was going to happen, she never would have done it. He may be mean sometimes, and he may be an annoying showoff, but he was still her brother and what she had done to him was so wrong.

"I'm sorry, Palom."

"Huh? Are you talking to me?"

"I'm sorry that I locked you outside. I shouldn't have done that."

Palom sat back up and regarded her. "You're really sorry?"

"Yes. I am."

There was another silence between them.

"I forgive you."

Porom brightened. "You do? Really?"

"You let me back in, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Yeah, you did. So I forgive you. Promise you'll never do it again."

"Promise."

Palom held out his hand to her.

"Shake on it, sis."

Porom shook his hand.

"Deal."

Across the room, they heard Rai mutter, "I wish Tellah were here. He always knew what to do when things like this happened."

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Isn't it sad? It's going to be more lighthearted from now on.

Oh yes, and all the important mages are related. Lol!

Okay, next chapter will be up soon. (I hope! -.-0)