Foreword: I had this idea and wasn't sure if I wanted to write it, but decided to at least give it a try and make it a short story (I'll see how short it actually is once I get started). Whether or not I actually put it on Fanfiction, I think it's going to turn out alright. I hope you enjoy reading it, and feel free to leave constructive criticism comments. I will just put the first chapter up for now. This story is mostly an experiment right now, and to satisfy my muse, but if people like it I'll keep uploading chapters and continue writing (since this story has been on hiatus for a while).
I will probably change the point of view a million times throughout the story...but maybe I'll ask someone in my family to catch any mistakes. I doubt they'll understand what the heck's going on though, since none of them play any of the "Tales of" series. Hahaha.
Song I'm listening to: "Let's Talk" by the Suzukake Children's Choir from the Tales of Legendia soundtrack. It could be a theme song for Stella, even though it's really Grune's. Well, anyway, enjoy the chapter.
I guess this fic is warm fuzzy fluffy stuff/some pairings, but mostly friendship. Eh, I'll just let you guys decide :)
Story started: June 12 2008
Description : Senel is on his way home after visiting Stella's grave when he realizes he's being followed. He doesn't know who it is, but it's no one he's met before, and it's no one he expected. Contains an unusual OC.
Chapter One - Follower's Arrival
A silvery-white-haired boy named Senel Coolidge dragged his feet as he walked down the street past his house, and the sounds of his shoes scraping against the hard ground echoed slightly around the quiet streets. A small cloth bag was held firmly but carefully in his arms so he wouldn't damage its contents. Something important for one of his close friends was inside of it.
Everyone sensible in town was asleep now, but there had been a sudden monster problem outside of Werites Beacon, so Will and Senel had gone and taken care of the fifty-so odd monsters, plus a pesky and incredibly deadly dragon that had refused to die. They'd cleaned up the monsters at a reasonable time but Norma had wanted him to go on a treasure hunt and after that Moses had wanted to do some "family bonding time" which looked like nothing more than a sick version of darts because the darts were spears and the object of aim was a person. Senel had also guessed (or fervently hoped) that some dodging was involved, but he had been too tired and unfocused to even open his mouth to ask; he'd managed to avoid Moses by saying Jay wanted to hang out with him (he knew there would be definite repercussions later).
Norma's suggestion he'd agreed to, probably because he feared she'd get into some accident or disturb some monster, like she had when he'd first met her. It was well past midnight now and Senel wanted nothing more to just collapse into his bed, but he wanted to go see Stella before he did that. A feeling of bittersweet happiness as he thought of Stella mixed with the fierce pain of loss—she had died a year and a half ago, sacrificing herself to save a town from being destroyed by the Nerifes Cannon, and apart from that, she had saved Senel himself countless times when she had been in tune with the Legacy. The time he and Shirley had been adrift at sea, then suddenly washed up ashore on the Legacy, when Senel had been dropped off the cliff, and the time when Stella had helped the whole group escape from Vaclav after they'd lost to him in a difficult fight. He had been unconscious at the time but his friends had filled him in later; they'd thought it was Shirley's Teriques that had saved them, but it had been Stella all along. All those times she'd been watching over him and even though Senel thought she'd died when he was a lot younger, protecting him and Shirley, he had failed to find her until it was too late.
He stopped and stared down at his feet; Stella's grave lay in front of him now, and he knelt carefully in front of it and pulled the bag open, leaving one strap around his shoulder as he gazed at the bag's contents. Senel gently pulled the medium sized flower bouquet out of the bag, and paused as the flower's colors again reminded him faintly of Stella's Teriques: golden with darker golden areas at the tips of the petals, and the middle of the petals were colored light gold. The center of the flower was a bright red. He gave a small sigh and let the bag slip from his hands as he slowly placed the flowers in front of Stella's grave. Then he took a deep breath and spoke.
"Thank you, Stella."
For some time after Stella's death he would visit her grave and be overcome with guilt and grief, and would say, "I'm sorry" whenever he knelt before the headstone. He had been uselessly helpless to save her and could only watch as she left him forever. Now, he felt like he wanted to stop feeling sorry for himself and start moving on. Stella would want him to move on, too. His friends knew he should move on.
Senel still missed Stella—he'd never stop wishing she was here with him—but he was happy for all the times she'd laughed with him, accepted him even when he had been wrong, and the times she'd saved him and always watched over him.
"I miss you, Stella, and so does everyone else, but we're all...." Senel hesitated, "doing alright, I guess." He squinted as the moon that hung in the clear starry sky suddenly seemed to glow a little brighter. A tiny smile turned up the corners of his mouth, but then it had gone, and the night was again as dark as it had been before but the streetlights would help him find his way back to his home.
"Goodnight," he said, and turned, slowly walking down the stone steps that led away from the cemetery. When he'd made it about halfway to his house he stopped and tensed; a strange shuffling noise had caught his attention. Even stranger was that the sound reminded him of the snuffling or whining noises Giet made. The Galf hadn't figured out how to use the elevator and come back into Werites Beacon, had he?
He realized suddenly that the shuffling noises had stopped, but he didn't relax just yet. If it was someone looking to attack him, or if it was a monster that had ventured into town, it definitely was still nearby.
"I know someone's there," Senel called firmly, raising his fists in preparation to fight, "so come out!" No other sound except his light breathing reached his ears and no one made an appearance—not that he expected anyone to. Senel turned quickly but saw no one behind him. A few minutes passed before with him straining his ears and eyes as he checked around the area, but he'd come up with nothing, and was just becoming more exhausted with each passing second. He'd stayed up way too late and finally decided to just walk home while keeping his senses tuned. He was a little jumpy as he walked back, and it didn't take much to set him off, whether it was a slight wind rustling a tree's branches or a creaky window that had been left open and was being moved by the wind. Once he'd made it to his front door he quickly stuck the key in, turned it, and entered. He inhaled deeply, welcoming the smell of the house that still reminded him of the first day he'd moved in. He put the bag on a nearby table and made his way upstairs. He kicked off his shoes and stumbled over to his bed, placed his house key on the bedside table, then just fell right onto it face first, not even bothering to get under the covers. He dimly thought of the picnic the whole group was going to have around eleven O'clock tomorrow at the spring, in memory of Stella and Grune. The Iron Eren tried his best to make an honest mental note to get up early but in record time he was sleeping heavily as only Senel Coolidge could.
There was, however, one thing he'd forgotten to do as he'd walked into his home half-asleep: shut and lock the door. One creature took advantage of this and pushed the slightly ajar front door open wider and entered, sniffing the room warily as it gazed up to where Senel slept. Then it began to move slowly up the stairs, then trained its eyes on the sleeping teenager once it reached the second floor. The creature's tail began to wag slowly as it padded cautiously closer to Senel's bed.
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Forgetting to lock your door's a bad thing....and being a heavy sleeper's even worse. What's going to become of Senel? Review if you want more chapters of this! Again this is a test to see if people like my Legendia story. I had written a lot of chapters for this story, and one day I got tired of it just sitting around with no one to read it (since hardly anyone else in my family plays the kind of video games I do and thus wouldn't be interested) so I finally uploaded it. Let me know if I have a good story here, and I'll upload more chapters.