So intense was the young man's concentration that each and every one of his senses was focused upon the object in his hand. He did not hear the gentle rustling of grass drawing closer from behind, nor see the small, curious rabbit that had been watching his progress flee from the approaching noise. More than either of these, he especially failed to notice the proximity of the source of this noise, even when it paused not a foot and a half behind him, examining the scene with much the same air that the rabbit had possessed.

The boy took in none of this. He was so close… nearly done. One nick here, one flick of the wrist there….

…and a four foot jump in the air as a partially-gloved hand descended upon his left shoulder. A sharp exclamation pierced the silence of the forest as the young man jerked away from the touch, leaned violently to the right, and fell off the boulder he had previously been precariously perched on.

Heart thumping wildly in his chest, the boy scrambled to his feet, grabbing blindly for something at his hip, and then threw himself back to the ground when the hand did not find what it was searching for. A half-second later, he was back on his feet, grasping the handle of the weapon with one hand as he-

"Lloyd."

Sword only halfway out of its scabbard, the now panting boy took a hasty step backwards and jerked his head up to stare at the face of the intruder.

"Kratos!"

The mercenary shifted his stance, regarding the sight before him with a slightly amused, but mostly serious air.

"… I apologize. It was not my intent to startle you."

"Well, you did!"

"Really. I hadn't the faintest idea."

"You scared me half to death! More than half, I think. What's a half plus a half of a half?"

"Three quarters."

"Yeah, that. That's how much you scared me. What was that for, anyway?

Whatever traces of amusement there had been fled the older man's face; Lloyd and the rest of his companions had noticed in the past few days since their having met the man that that particular expression never seemed to last very long on the mercenary's features.

"I do not believe it wise, that you should wander this far from camp, this late at night."

"I wasn't wandering; I was sitting."

"With no awareness whatsoever as to your surroundings, it appears."

"I…"

Lloyd fell silent as memory of his activities prior to the interruption came back to him. The young man bent his head, franticly examining the ground beneath his feet, and then turned to the side, looking intently for the object that had absorbed so much of his attention. Dropping back to the ground, Lloyd alternately ran his hands through the grass and patted the earth, wishing it wasn't quite so dark.

"Lloyd…"

The young swordsman looked up to find Kratos kneeling among the dark foliage, examining something he held in his hand. Cringing, Lloyd looked away as he stood up.

"This is…"

"… you?" The young man suggested.

Rising from his position on the ground, Kratos held the object up out of the shadows, into what little light the moon provided.

"… very good." The mercenary finished.

Lloyd sighed. "No, it isn't."

"I beg to differ." Kratos bushed his fingers lightly over the rough wood, examining the expression, stance, and detail of the figure. "Have you done the same for the others as well?"

"… Yeah. I haven't done any for a while, though, and this one… well, it's been harder than the rest."

Kratos raised his eyes from the mini-mercenary to look questioningly at the shaper of the wood that rested in his hand.

"How so?"

Lloyd threw his hands up in the air with the attitude of one who had asked all the questions and discovered none of the answers.

"I have no idea. Absolutely none."

The older man raised an eyebrow at the outburst.

"Seriously, I've lost track of the number of times I've tried to make you, now. I mean, it took about three times with Colette's, but even that wasn't anything like this. It's like, every time I think I'm done, I'll look at you again and see that something's just… off. Sometimes it's small, sometimes it's big, but it's always something."

Kratos lowered his eyes once again to the figure in his hand.

"…Hm. Perhaps that isn't such a bad thing."

"It's frustrating!"

"I have no doubt. However, I also like to think that I'm not quite as simple to figure out as most."

Lloyd shook his head, exasperated with his inability to explain.

"…I don't know. With Colette, I finally got it right when I realized what it was that I wasn't seeing. With you, though… I just have no idea. I don't understand what's missing."

"…Again, perhaps that is for the best."

Avoiding Lloyd's quizzical stare, Kratos extended his arm, holding out the carving. Only when the boy had retrieved it hesitantly did the mercenary turn around, facing the direction from which he had emerged only a few minutes before.

"We should return. I left Ms. Sage as watch, but even so… I do not believe it to be in either their best interests or ours to remain separated for extended periods of time."

"Ah… right."

Gathering up his swords and the fallen wood-working supplies, Lloyd hurried to follow the form of the quickly-disappearing swordsman.

Pushing back branches as he made his way back to the campsite, Kratos moved in and out of the patches of moonlight that scattered the forest floor. Well out of earshot of the young man still struggling to keep up, he narrowed his eyes for a brief second, a pained expression on his face.

"Too soon… it's far too soon…."