Tales of Desperation

Authors' Note: Hello, CC and Thirsty4More here! This story is an alt. version to the game series Tales of Symphonia. This one, in particular, is along the story of Dawn of the New World.
We appreciate any helpful, constructive critiques you have to offer up, as well as maybe some funny ideas we can throw in later! Flames, however, are not so appreciated.

Anyways, Thirsty4More, MoonWhisper22 (She will eventually be collaborating with us on this), and I hope you enjoy!

Enter Lilia Imayra

"Ugnhhh..." A ray of sunlight innocently trickled through the blinds of a tattered house in Asgard. The house was rather large, but it wasn't exactly Capitalist Class level. Vibrant green hair was spread out all about a white coloured pillow. Upon the girl, there were baby blue blankets pulled up to her shoulders.

"Lilia! You have to get up. The mayor wishes to speak with you and Tannika in about a half hour!" A female voice rang from one room over. The green haired girl sat up and rubbed her duo-toned eyes lazily and yawned. Her feet lightly touched the wooden floors, and she scooted them across the cold surface, shuffling herself about the house until she sat down at the table, and as usual, her mother had her breakfast prepared. Her morning was all ready brightened, and her mouth watered as she looked down at the meal before her. Strawberry crepes with whipped cream. She began eating instantly.

"Mum, what izzit that the mayor wanted me for?" She asked, a mouth full of strawberry and whipped cream. She received a smack upside the back of her head.

"Lilia, speak politely to your mother." Her father sternly said.

"Yessir." She quickly submitted, bowing her head. "So, why does the mayor need to speak to me?" The pale girl rephrased. The sound of a large wind gust drowned their voices for a few moments.

"I'm not too sure, he just wants you and Tannika there soon, so go on and eat, and get dressed." Her mother urged. Lilia looked down at her plate and in a very unladylike manner, she shoved the sweet meal into her mouth, choking it down and rushing from the table before her father could curse her out in his oh so loving and fatherly way. She was a bit anxious as she threw on her purple top, an onyx gem caressed in bat wings on the chest. Cinching her waist with a black corset-cinch after slipping on a purple pair of shorts that mimicked a skirt, a bold lime green line running alongside the hemline. Licking some whipped cream left on her lips, she pulled up her socks and buckled on her belt, a giant silver rose on the rather large accessory, and her black leg warmers, striped in her two signature colours.

She quickly ran a comb through her straight cut hair with one particular hair refusing to go flat against her head, pondering what it was that the mayor could want her for. 'It must be because of my monstrous eye...' She looked at her eyes. One was a soft gray, her right eye. Her left on the other hand had a demon eye like structure; a slit for a pupil, intense lines to make it stand out, and it was a strong deep violet colour. "Where did this come from..?" She asked herself. She asked herself that daily. Neither her father nor mother had it. But, she did.

'That's probably it... People have been talking about it more and more lately.' She slipped a white eye patch on over it, a black 'X' on it. With a sigh, her mother called out to her. It was time to go and find out the news. Slipping her black Lolita hat on and her poofy coat, serving more as a fancy cape, she dreadfully put her shoes on, and went out the door, greeted with a brisk wind; Asgard's harsh gales.

Lilia began her was up the many steps and hills of her 'hometown'. People she walked by either glanced at the ground, and children ran out of her path. The only one that didn't mind her company was Murray, the town's sole dog that just loved everybody. Giving the happy dog a pat on the head, and a scratch behind the ears, Murray cheerfully barked and wagged his tail, following Lilia on her slow journey to the mayor's home.

Enter Tannika

Once a breeze began to pick up, a figure hugged herself as she pushed herself up from a building and took a few steps forward, stooping down to pick up a small knife, fancily doing a twirl and putting it away at her side. She brushed some of her cold gray colored hair from her face before walking down the worn paths of Asgard. The smell of sweet cooking filled the air around where she had previously been. She began to pick some bits of dried up leaves dorm her gray and soft/light articles of clothing. Ribbons were adorned about the girl's body; her hair, her arms, upon her corset, and about her legs attached to her ballerina flat-like shoes. Goosebumps rose to the surface of her skin as another chilling breeze harshly blew past. Fixing her gaze downward, to avoid her eyes watering from the wind pressure, Murray appeared to have ran over to her and happily leaned against her for warmth and as a greeting, sitting at her feet and panting with excitement once the wind calmed down.

"Hey there, Murray." She calmly greeted before the dog began to walk around the small town to greet all. Then, the girl gave a hostile shout to a figure ahead of her. "Hey! Wait up there!" The green haired girl stopped and turned at the familiar voice. She narrowed her grayscale eye.

"Let's pick up the pace then, yeah?" She called back, pushing her lower lip out a bit; the lipstick gave it a bruised look. She held still as the other caught up to her, and then the two began to walk alongside. "So, what is it that the mayor wanted?" The girl was dying to know.

"The mayor wanted to see us?" She asked, raising a brow toward the taller girl.

"Yeah, mayor wanted to talk to us both. I guess we'll both have to find out what it is..." She looked straight ahead once more, people watching the two make their way up more hills and steps.

The other girl simply nodded, idly wondering if it had something to do with the three rolls of bread that she'd stolen from the bakery the other day. Or maybe it was about the woolen blanket she'd nicked from the inn last night, she wasn't used to the harsh winds of Asgard. Oh, perhaps they'd found a suspect for the theft of a pretty dress the girl had 'acquired' last month, she thought, looking down at the layered dress with multiple shades of blue. 'How could I resist? It goes so well with the shade of gray on my corset.' Lilia did provide her with a diversion for that little escapade, so the last one seemed the most likely. The girl's eyes narrowed beneath her glasses at the thought of causing her only friend more trouble. Lilia didn't need that, nor did she deserve it.

"Hey Lilia, you don't think he knows who was responsible for the recent thievery, do you?" Lilia stopped to give her friend an incredulous look.

"As if. When you steal, no one sees you. You're too fast and cunning." She said with a smirk.

"Lilia, I'm serious. What if you're caught fraternizing with the culprit?" The greenette rolled her eyes and did what all friends do when trying to knock some sense into them. She smacked her upside the head.

"Owww! What the hell?" She said, rubbing the aqua colored top of her head, which contrasted greatly with the gray half below it.

"Quit worrying. You're not stupid enough to get caught red-handed. Now shut up before someone hears you and actually does begin to suspect you of thievery." She hissed as her friend just pouted before schooling her face into a well-known look of absolute apathy as they approached the mayor's house.

The two walked inside just to narrowly avoid another brief gust of wind and they were greeted with a warming, "Welcome, Miss Imayra and Miss Tannika." The two nodded.

"Just Lilia is fine" The girl with bright hair spoke respectfully to the higher authority. The mayor nodded in acknowledgment.

"Anyways... Tannika," He nodded in her direction. "Lilia," He gave a curt nod in her direction. "I thank you for showing up in such a timely fashion." He thanked the girls, as a mayor should. After both took a seat at a table he gestured to, he pulled out a folder. "I have here a task for you two. Lately, rumours of a sudden increase of monster activity in Hima have been spread, and have recently reached my ears. You two, seeming to have some levels of combat under your belt, have been nominated to survey the monster-to-human ratio, and the type of monsters sighted. As the mayor, I felt that made sense; to have you both do so." Lilia mentally sighed.

'The village would want me to go to a village infested with monsters...' The purple clad girl sourly thought. Tannika sensed how on edge Lilia was. "Alright, we'll do it." She felt the thief slightly glare at her, as she wasn't even bothered to have been asked. Not that she was going to object.

'Asking would have been nice, what if I was busy?' She thought as the mayor trusted her with the folder. He trusted the mysterious woman over the monstrous one. Tannika, herself, was beginning to have her own thoughts, once more. 'What...What if they managed to catch me, and witnesses squealed?' Suspicion was masked expertly from her face. 'They could be nicely banishing me, hoping to not come back. And then Lilia-'

"This wouldn't happen to be because of my eye? They didn't volunteer us because they want me to never come back, to die, right? And merely by association, Tannika is sentenced to her death too, right? What kind of mayor are you?" The magic caster lost it finally, her voice aching with spite. Tannika gripped the girl's white clothed arm tightly, pulling her back. The mayor, a bit shocked, sighed.

"As the mayor, I care for all who live here... Including you, Lilia and Tannika. But, Lilia your presence is upsetting all and Tannika..." He sighed. "By association, they think you two are up to something." That stung... Lilia's rage subsided into a deep regret, looking at her friend in an apologetic manner.

"Well, whatever, we accept. Let's just go..." The aqua eyed girl grasped the folder and swiftly exited the room, and the building entirely. Lilia remained lingering for a few moments longer before she rose to her feet.

"Please... maybe come back when the matter has settled a bit? You know I'm not doing this for personal reasons."

"It sounds a little too personal to me." She left, catching up with Tannika, the other waiting for her outside of the mayor's house. Villagers refused to look at the two even more now. All filled with the slight shame that they were treating humans this way, but not as guilty as they felt for how little that amount of guilt was. Tannika stared straight forward as Lilia matched her stride, walking towards the rickety welcome gate to Asgard.

"This town... what a crock of shit!" Tannika swore, Lilia forcing a detour towards her house.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll be more than glad to leave. Lemmie grab my staff, and then we can leave this damn town. For good, I'd hope." Lilia grumbled, both barging into her house. The green haired one first, followed by the gray and aqua haired one.

"Lilia, what are doing back already?" Her father demanded, the girl going into her room.

"Tannika, y'know where my Gald stash is. Grab whatever's in there." She told her, the other girl making a beeline towards its place. Lila grasped her staff and a small bag to store things in.

"Lilia! Tannika!" The man demanded once more, Lilia leaving her room and catching the bag of money that Tannika tossed, slipping it into the bag. The two were a bit more than eager now to leave.

"Dad, the mayor wants us to go to Hima." She sighed, glaring at the impatient man. "We're surveying monsters." She added, about to go towards the door, but he held both girls back by their wrists.

"Now, hold it you two..." He stated. "Why would he not inform us Lilia, as your parents, about this?"

"Because, this damn village wants us gone." Tannika answered, chewing on the inside of her cheek, irritated. "We just want to get this over with."

"And don't even try to not make me go, Dad. It was pretty much an order, and we accepted this. You won't want our name filthier than it already is." The taller of the two knew her father was all about the family's reputation. He sighed.

"Lilia... Tannika..." The older man rubbed at his temples, releasing the two. "Wait here..." He then disappeared towards the back of the house. Tannika, as it appears out of sheer habit, was about to book it.

"Wait." Lilia softly spoke, a look in her eyes that asked for her to trust her. After a moment's contemplation, Tannika eased up a bit and waited, still impatiently. Her father only returned a minute or so later, two bags, one in each hand.

"Here," He handed them one each. "Miracle Gels, the best you can get. It's not much, but I want you two girls to return safely." He said releasing the bags from his grasp once the two had them, both putting them away in Lilia's bag.

"Thanks, Mr. Imayra." Tannika nodded her head, opening the door. "We appreciate it. But, we have to get going, now." She said, exiting the room. The Imayras knew that she was an antsy one.

"Thanks, dad." Lilia gave her old man a hug. "Tell mum I said goodbye." She said before she too left. The two then continued towards the gates of Asgard, leaving just as a final harsh, cool breeze whipped past them.