Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 7
Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 7


BJ
"Where did Tracy go?" I asked.
We were sitting at a table in Down Home Burgers. Business was slow.
Ness and Lomond were talking with one of the cashiers while they were waiting for our orders to arrive. I could pick up bits of their conversation. Mineral water and pro wrasslin' were the most bandied about terms.
Of course, being me, I prefer track and field to pro wrestling. Wrestling I can stomach; pro westling is much too staged. And I've heard they admit it!
Lomond and Ness left the counter, our food on trays they were carrying. There were Double burgers for Ness and I; Hamburgers for Lomond and Picky; a Bag of fries for 'Roots.
"Yum!" Ñrutas exclaimed, digging into his fries.
"Whoa!" I said. "Slow down, Ñrutas. And again, where did Tracy go?"
"She went to Giant Step, a Your Sanctuary spot," Picky explained. "To absorb its power in the Power Crystal," he added. "But for some reason, it didn't work. The power was gone."
"I should have realised that," Ness admitted, chomping into his Double burger. The pickles from his burger lay on the wrapper. He swallowed the bite he had in his mouth, and continued, "I absorbed the powers of my Your Sanctuaries a few years ago. I wasn't thinking when I told Picky and Tracy about Your Sanctuaries. I didn't realise they might have Your Sanctuaries of their own."
"So, where would your first Your Sanctuary be, Picky?" Lomond asked.
"Well," Ness mused, "my first was in the Onett area; it was Giant Step. So I would assume that their first Your Sanctuary would be similarily located."
He pulled a small map from his backpack and unrolled it on a nearby table. We milled around it, except for 'Roots, who was busily eating the fries, bag and all.
"'Roots!" I warned. "Don't eat the bag!"
"This is a map of the Onett area, dating from 1904. It was made by a man, a stranger to Eagleland, named George Do."
I recognised the name. "I've heard he had a strange ability to sense paranormal activity, so the reeves of Eagleland in the nineteen aughts secretly hired him to locate all the areas in the world that possessed paranormal activity or attracted it."
Did I forget to mention I've been one of the highest placers in the Threed school system in the history classes I've taken?
Ness produced a napkin and a pen.
"Hopefully we can narrow down where she's went this way," he said softly.
A rather old man came into the burger shop.
"I wonder when that girl's gonna come back with my hangglider," he muttered. "The shop's running short as it is..."
He ordered a can of fruit juice. Sort of fitting, really. He's kind of fruity.
Ness and Picky shot up.
"Did he...?" Ness.
"Say girl? And hangglider?" Picky. Lomond nodded.
Ness and Picky quickly rushed over to the map again, and deftly started knocking out locations. "Not S'ram, not Giant Step, ... Berloneot?" They looked at each other. "Berloneot!"
"Berloneot?" I asked.
"Burp. 'Scuse, boing!" 'Roots had finally finished everything. Including the bag.
"'Roots," I moaned. "You don't eat the bag!"
"Sor, sorry!"
"Aww, don't worry about it," I said. "Just remember it next time. And Berloneot?" I asked once more, annoyed with the fact we kept getting sidetracked.
"Berloneot. It's a rather distant island off Beak Point. And it's been known for paranormal activity."
Picky smiled, and continued where Ness had left off, "Paranormal activity such as PSI. Like the powers Ness, Ñrutas, Tracy and I have."
"So you're thinking she's there?" I asked.
Ness nodded.
"Lomond, BJ, Ñrutas, this really doesn't concern you," he added, "so you can stay behind if you want."
"Personally," Lomond admitted, "our families are sort of intertwined. And we owe it to Tracy and Picky for breaking up Red Night and indicting Prettyman for organising them as Blood Moon. So if it's as well, I'm going to help no matter what."
"I might not know Tracy, but I'll help anyways," I announced.
"I go with BJ," 'Roots said.
"And of course," I observed, "you and Picky are definitely going. So we're together for now."
"For now." Lomond let the words hang. Was it because he and Ness were members of the Onett Giants high school baseball team?
Would they have to leave us once another game came up? When was their next game? Where was it?

We were located in various locations around the hangglider shop.
"What do you mean, you won't let us have a hangglider?" Ness demanded angrily.
"You don't get anything until that girl returns hers," the old man from the burger shop muttered.
We meandered outside, seemingly converging by accident. Of course, since he knew me best, 'Roots was with me.
"Can you believe the nerve of that man?" Ness spat.
"I knew he was a bit of a fruit," I observed.
"It's like a catch-22," Lomond added.
"Catch-twenty-two?" Ñrutas asked.
"You're not one to grasp something complicated easily, are you, Ñrutas?" Lomond inquired.
"Zoom, my head hurts from thinking easily."
"I'll simplify, then. Say to get a job, you need experience. But to get experience, you need a job. Each is needed for the other, but you can't get one without the other."
"Oh." 'Roots gave his feigned comprehension smile.
"And applying it to this situation," I concluded, "we can't get a hangglider until Tracy returns hers. Tracy can't return hers until we get a hangglider, which we need Tracy's to get."
"Exactly!" Lomond clapped.
"I still don't get it," 'Roots admitted.
"But I thought you got it!" Lomond complained.
"That was his 'feigned comprehension' smile," I whispered to Lomond.
"Wait..." Picky pointed. "There's some smoke in the direction of Beak Point..."
"What elements did you say you had to absorb again, Picky?" Ness asked hurriedly.
I could sense the fear in his voice.
"Water, Thunder, Earth, Light, Darkness, Wind, Life, and ... Fire." Picky's tone noticeably dropped.
"You mean..." Lomond trailed off.
"Yes. Tracy's on Berloneot. And Berloneot contains the energy of Fire."


Tracy
"Power Crystal!" I cried. "I control the energies of Fire. Exhaust the flames consuming Berloneot!"
I poured all the energy I could into dousing the flames. But there wasn't much left, when you consider what I did to defeat Luriss.
Two or three trees were doused. The squirrel that was recently Luriss recovered and quickly swam across to Beak Point. I didn't blame him.
My head was spinning; I was exhausted; I could barely go further.
I hope Ness and Picky can find... me...

I opened my eyes.
Everything was bright. Am I dead?
There were fuzzy figures all around.
"Tracy!" Could it be Ness? No, he didn't know where I was. But it sounded so much like him.
"Tracy... can you hear me?" ...Picky!
"Picky!" I cried. "I can hear you... but I can't see you!"
I heard them whispering. I knew they were whispering about me, but what about?
I tried to move, but I couldn't. I was still too tired.
I slipped out of consciousness again... to the pained cries of my brother and Picky...

I woke up again.
"Picky..." I said, incredibly glad to be awake again. And I could see him now!
I leaped out of bed. Bed? I was home!
Picky covered his eyes. It was then I realised I was dressed in a hospital dress. It wasn't too revealing, but it wasn't very unrevealing.
"Oh. Sorry," I said, not wanting to embarrass Picky any further than I already had. As if following my unvoiced cue, he quickly left my room.
I closed my door and dressed; I tied a new ribbon in my hair; I replaced the hospital attire with a pale crimson dress.
A knocking came at the door.
"Tracy? Are you ready?" Lomond Fyne, one of Ness' friends from We'll laugh about it tomorrow, asked me. And why does their club have such a weird name? (Author note: I know why; don't bother contacting me.)
"Yes, Lomond. I'll be out in a second."
The door opened, and I rushed out. I hastily slipped a rather shoddily made -- and, ironically, accurate in name -- Cheap bracelet on as I rushed by Lomond.
"Sure! Don't care about your brother's friend!"
"Sorry, Lomond!" I called behind me as I ran downstairs.
"Tracy! You are awake!" Ness exclaimed, rushing up to me, hugging me.
"Why didn't you go up there to check on me, Ness?" I whined.
"I already went up," he explained. "You were still sleeping."
"Oh." Now embarrassed, I looked around. Also sitting at the table, besides Picky and Ness, were a head with legs wearing a bow and a boy, about my age. The boy looked like he was Japanese. He was cute, too.
"Hello," I said.
Lomond walked down the stairs and sat down in one of the two empty chairs.
"You ought to head off to Twoson, Trace," Ness suggested. "Maybe look to see if there's a Your Sanctuary for you there, too."
"Aren't you coming, Ness?" I asked.
"Can't. Neither can Lomond. After all, we're on the Onett Giants junior baseball team, and traipsing about with you, as much as we'd like to do so, would probably be too draining on our powers."
"And I have to talk with Douglas, Lorne and Chester about changing the name of our club. 'We'll laugh about it tomorrow' doesn't befit a club now. It might have fit then, but it doesn't now." Lomond laughed. I guess tomorrow was now for him.
"But we'll help you whenever our games intersect with wherever you are," Ness added.
I walked over to my mom, fitfully sleeping on the couch.
"Mom?" I nudged her. "Mom?"
"Leave her be," Ness urged me. "I'll tell her you're okay. Just go."
"Not before I do this," I said. I hugged my mom, and whispered, "I love you. I'll be back."
"Cross heart?" the talking head asked me.
"Sure," I replied. I guess...
We walked outside. By we I mean Picky, me, the talking head, and the Japanese boy. Like they'd already explained, their baseball careers took precedence over this.
But something nagged me. Wouldn't that be considered greedy?
Or is Ness' fight over? Is it time for a new group to rise against evil threatening life?

We were sitting in the recently-added annex to the Twoson Hotel, eating our supper. We'd gotten into Twoson just as the sun was setting for one simple reason: Ñrutas, the talking head, had insisted on partaking of a game of hide-and-seek in the Onett streets.
And having to hide in such a small place as Saturn Valley had refined his skills so well that it took us a few hours to find him.
"'Roots..." BJ chided him.
"Happy? Zoom!" Ñrutas exclaimed.
"I'm definitely not happy with you," BJ replied. "You held us up for some time; that time could have been better spent travelling, learning about whatever we might have to do here."
Ñrutas looked like he was about to cry.
"Don't worry, Ñrutas, BJ didn't mean what he said. Didn't he?" I glared at BJ, who hesitated.
"No," he lied.
Picky led me away, pretending to look at some travel brochures.
In truth, the brochures were themselves intriguing: Visit Carrillon Beach in Summers!; Experience the trip of a lifetime, and explore the Scaraba Pyramid!; and many others, especially for cruises to Winters. I made a decision to take at least one trip once Giogas was defeated.
"Be careful what you say around those two," he hissed. "BJ's got a real messed up family life. His mother died, and I don't know if he has a stepmother or whatever. He might even be adopted for all I know."
I slumped, suddenly feeling very guilty.
"He's really defensive about things," Picky continued, "especially Threed. We nearly got into a fight in Threed when I complained about the lack of things to do there."
Now I felt really guilty. I have to apologise to the two of them soon.
Suddenly I felt psychic anguish. The anguish forced itself on me like water forces itself into a sinking ship.
I whirled around, trying to find the source of this anguish. Then I found it.
A young woman, Ness' age, with blonde hair. Paula Polestar.
She turned to me. Walked over.
"We have to talk," she said.