Disclaimer: I do not own the Tales of Symphonia, including the characters Mithos, Martel, and Kratos. I do however own this vision of Mithos and Martel's parents.

So Long and Goodnight

The Prequel to Tales of Symphonia

Prologue

In the middle of the night, a baby's cries rang out through the air. The little half-elf clenched his little hands and kept his eyes closed shut. He was clothed in silk white cloth. He had a little hair on the top of his head. It was bright blonde, and shone beautifully under the stars that could be seen in the open window. He continued to cry until a woman picked him up in her arms. The baby opened his little eyes that resembled slits and looked at her. He stared at her pointed ears, her deep forest-green hair, but more importantly, he gazed into her kind eyes. The baby smiled a little and even giggled.

"What should we name him?" a man asked. He had blonde hair like the child and also kind eyes like the woman.

"Hmmm…" the woman pondered. "How about Mithos?"

The man nodded and smiled. "Yes, Mithos." He put his arm around the woman's shoulders and rested his hand on the child's head. "Are you okay, dear?"

The woman laughed a little despite her tiredness. "Well, childbirth does take a lot out of one."

Then a young girl of about ten years walked in the door. She had long light green hair and matching green eyes. Like the rest of her family, they also sparkled with adoration. "Mother, Father!" she spoke with urgency.

"Martel, what is it?" the woman asked.

"The rest of the village, they're coming!" Martel said.

"The elves are coming?" the man asked.

Martel nodded. "Yes, Father. And they have scary looking things with them!"

"Martel, come here," her mother beckoned.

Martel ran to her mother's side and looked at the baby in her arms. "What is it, Mother?"

Her mother placed the baby in Martel's arms. "His name is Mithos," she said with a weak smile. "Please take care of him." Then she began to get up from the bed she laid.

"What…what are you doing?" Martel asked, her voice showing her intense worry.

"Maybe the elves will be satisfied with just me," she said.

"Dear, you don't mean –" the father began.

"Yes, I do."

"I'm coming with you."

"What about the children?"

"I cannot leave you."

Martel watched her parents discuss the situation until they both went outside. They both smiled and waved at her. The last thing she ever heard from them was, "Take care of Mithos, Martel."

She never saw them again. She heard their screams as the elves murdered them. Mithos began to wail, but Martel hugged him and gave him some comforting words to shush him. When she saw them walk outside, she knew she wasn't ever going to see them again, and she knew the elves were going to kill them. However, she never could understand why the elves hated them so much and what drove them to kill her parents.

Twelve Years Later…

A calm wind stirred the tree branches in the Ymir Forest. Some sunlight shone through the dense forest. It was normally abandoned so it was a good place to practice swordplay without interruption. A boy and his teacher stood there. His teacher was across from him; a big gap separated the two. They both held swords; the boy held a slightly smaller and thinner one and the teacher held a bigger one.

The boy had blonde hair down to about his shoulders and blue eyes. He was a bit thin and a little feminine looking due to his small stature. He wore white and bluish-greenish elven clothing and purple bracelets on each wrist. His teacher was a tall, extremely strong man. He had somewhat disorderly brown hair covering part of his face, maroon eyes, and very dark purple-black armor. His name was Kratos Aurion.

"Are you ready, Mithos?" Kratos asked the boy.

Mithos nodded. "I am, teacher," he said.

"We'll work on parrying today," Kratos announced. "I will attack you. You will defend first and as you catch me off balance, counterattack."

"Okay," Mithos said. "Whenever you're ready." He held up his sword, ready to block Kratos' attack.

"Here I come," Kratos said.

Kratos ran at Mithos, sword drawn, and as he neared Mithos, he made his move. As Mithos prepared himself, Kratos made a change in his footing and was suddenly looking at Mithos' open side. Hopefully Mithos would recover in time, but he wasn't going to harm him even if he didn't recover. However, Mithos managed to react quickly enough and swiftly brought his sword over to his side and angled it perfectly. As he felt Kratos' blade slip by, he backed up a step to avoid Kratos' sword, and thrusted with his own sword.

Yet, being more experienced than Mithos, Kratos still avoided the parry and ducked in time for Mithos' next attempt.

"Getting better," Kratos observed as he continued to dodge Mithos' attacks.

Mithos gritted his teeth as sweat rolled down his neck and forehead. Beads of it fell by his eyes and they began to tear a little, becoming sensitive. "You think so?" he said, jumping back as Kratos swung his sword.

"Keep trying," Kratos encouraged.

Taking the advice, Mithos took it up a notch. "Demon speed!" He suddenly moved extremely fast and appeared behind Kratos. Kratos smiled. His apprentice was starting to catch on quicker. Mithos knew he was faster than him. He was now learning to take control of his advantages, but he still lacked a certain mentality. And he was too naïve to understand it right now, but someday he would grow up into a man.

Kratos blocked the attack as he turned around swiftly and then he saw Mithos try to parry the attack. Kratos let his blade slide along Mithos' and he changed his footing at the last second, brought the blade away from Mithos', and then up by Mithos' neck.

"I'd say that's enough for today, Mithos," Kratos said.

Mithos chuckled a little, uneasy about the sword by his neck, even if it was his teacher's. "You got me again."

"But you are improving." Kratos sheathed his sword.

"Really? You really think so?" Mithos asked, letting his innocence and excitement get the best of him as he put away his own sword.

"Yes, but you can be much better."

Mithos nodded. "I understand. Thank you, teacher, for helping my sister and me this whole time."

Kratos merely replied with a, "Hn."

Then, suddenly, a gunshot whizzed past them. Kratos screamed for Mithos to get behind him, and the student obeyed. Kratos and Mithos both took out their swords and got in a ready stance. They could see a silhouette off in the distance; something large and some other outlines of people.

"You there!" a voice called.

Kratos gripped his sword tighter as the figure revealed himself, holding a strange looking gun. This was not going to be good.

Well there's the prologue. I plan on having the chapters longer. I just have this thing with prologues being a bit short. I hope you liked it so far. I wasn't sure how to start it, and I had no idea what happened to Mithos and Martel's parents, so I decided they were murdered by the elves of Heimdall. I hope you approve . Please review! It annoys me when someone reads my work, but doesn't bother to review. So please do!