A/N: This is a kranna oneshot, set in the Gaelras universe. I was just thinking that my summary for the story mentioned that Kratos knew Anna from her first breath. I've decided to prove it.
Gaelras, an Interlude- Birth
Summary: He had watched over her since her very first breath. And he could still remember the smell of the lake and the pine trees- he always would. Specifically, he recalled the baby's wails as she entered the world. She was really, really loud.
Kratos Aurion moved silently through the forest surrounding Lake Sinoa, his footsteps light and almost impossible to spot in the darkness pressing in on him.
The Desians' footfalls were much louder, leaves and twigs crunching underneath their steel toed boots, and the angel could easily outmaneuver and avoid them.
He was more worried about the other angel- one so increasingly dependent on Yggdrasil's lies. As he sped along the forest floor, he could almost see Yuan catching up to him…
And in the stillness of that hot July night, a scream of pain echoed from a clearing somewhere ahead of the auburn haired man. His overly sensitive ears protested this ill treatment by ringing incessantly and he had to strain to catch the sound of his fellow angel's soft steps.
The scream pierced the otherwise still air again, and Kratos growled in frustration. If the maker of that sound didn't shut up soon, the Desians would find him as easily as Yuan!
He made a rash and somewhat stupid decision then, yet it seemed quite logical at the time. Stop the screaming, and no one could find him.
Stepping into the clearing, he realized just how stupid he was.
A woman, heavily pregnant but not for long, lay panting against a tree. Her husband (or so Kratos hoped) was trying to regain the feeling back into his hands as she gripped them and he barely noticed the angel approach them.
"Help!" the man yelled at him, "Please, find help!"
Kratos remained under control, as was his personality. "Luin is several miles away. No midwife could reach you before morning."
"Then you help us!" screamed the suffering woman, her hair sticking to her face.
The angel scoffed. He did not deliver babies. Few men ever did, and he was an angel, for Martel's sake!
But he was once human. And the empathy triggered by the husband's pleading eyes kept Kratos rooted to the spot, unable to leave.
If he didn't flee soon, Yuan would find him. And he'd be brought back to Derris Kharlan, his reputation irreversibly tarnished by his weakness and affinity for humans.
Torn, Kratos could only stand and stare at the couple before him. His Angelic hearing made the loud footfalls of the Desians seem much closer than they probably were, but there was Yuan to consider…and the suffering woman before him.
When she screamed again, the former human made up his mind.
He approached her, pushing up his sleeves. In over four thousand years of living (or existing, but that was not to be debated during this type of situation), Kratos had seen and done many things. Childbirth was not on his list.
"What should I do?" his deep voice sounded anxious, almost fearful.
The woman managed to grumble between grunts of pain, "Introduce yourself, first off. I will not have my child born by a stranger!"
"Kratos. A mercenary."
"I'm Eric Garris, this is my wife, Lira. Working on the mutated rabbit problem we've been having?" the husband asked casually, as if they were conversing between good friends in a comfortable situation.
"No. In the market for work, currently."
"Don't expect to be paid for this. It's our first, and we're poor enough as it is."
"Do you mind?!" the wife yelled, "I want it out, now!"
Her husband smiled apologetically and motioned for Kratos take his place by the woman's side. As he complied, Eric moved in front of her.
"Just one more push, Lira!" Eric yelled over his wife's high pitched screams.
Kratos' ears were ringing, but the woman was gripping his hands so hard that they were turning blue. He did not envy women.
With a last strangled shout came a squelching sound and Eric's joyful and encouraging remarks thrown to Lira. The woman panted heavily, the rigors of childbirth draining all of her energy.
Kratos watched as Eric took his first look at his baby. Father and child locked eyes for what seemed like hours, their identical brown orbs memorizing each feature of the other.
The angel felt jealousy grow in the pit of his stomach. He wanted that.
With a shake of the head, Kratos eliminated the treacherous thought. He was an angel. A child was impossible.
However, as he shook his auburn hair, he also distracted the newborn from her exploration of the world around her, and the babe decided to say hello to the world.
And he thought Lira's screams were bad.
Just as Eric cried, "It's a girl!" his little daughter let out a wail that outmatched her mother's in both pitch and volume, making Kratos believe that he might go deaf with the sound.
Eric was obviously at a loss for what to do, and Lira was so exhausted that she could not move her arms.
The angel made another rash decision (two in one day? Was that a record?), but this one he would never, ever regret, even after many years of punishment for it (and a number of other misdeeds, but that was another story).
Kratos quickly plucked the girl from his father arms and into his own. The instant his large, callused hands touched her, she silenced. And the mercenary was as surprised as Eric.
"What will you name her?" he asked, staring at the baby as she cocked her mostly-bald head at him.
"I don't-" Eric paused as he glance over at his wife, who was glaring through heavily lidded eyes, "Anna. After her grandmother."
"Anna…" the name rolled off Kratos' tongue like the smoothest of chocolates, or like water to a man stranded in the desert.
She seemed to be studying him, her big, brown eyes searching his for something. If an adult had done such a thing, he would have turned away, yet with Anna he could not.
Her eyes seemed to pull him in and anchor him, determine not to let go. And he found himself falling willingly.
Kratos was brought back to reality by an annoying, slight tugging on his scalp.
She was pulling on his hair.
Anna had one chubby hand wrapped around a spike of auburn hair, and Kratos had to tilt his head to avoid any possible pain. When the baby saw his expression turn from contemplation to annoyance, his lips pursed and his furrowed brow, she giggled.
Her first laugh, for him.
As Kratos handed the child off to her mother, Eric thanked him profusely for his help. The angel knew he should leave; it was a miracle no one had found him yet…
Apparently thinking of being found summoned Yuan. The blue haired half-elf ignored the couple lying on the forest floor and marched across the clearing, stopping at a respectable distance from his fellow seraphim.
Eric and Lira took the glare that appeared on Kratos' face as a sign to be wary and they maneuvered Anna so that she was hidden behind their bodies.
"I won't go back, Yuan." Kratos stated, his reddish brown eyes betraying the panic he felt as they switched between the other angel and the Garris'.
Yuan looked curiously at the couple, wondering why Kratos would be worried about a couple of humans in a forest. "The Desians have been led to Palmacosta. It will take them a few days to fully search it. I suggest you head somewhere…colder."
Yuan wanted him to go to Flanoir? It was the most remote city on either of the two worlds…
"Our leader grows impatient with you, Kratos. He has a new assignment. You'd best stop avoiding him."
"Because you can't keep hiding me?" Kratos' sarcasm and the tense, hostile air that had settled in the clearing frightened Anna, and she proceeded to voice her distaste by screaming again.
The two angels winced simultaneously, Yuan finally catching a glimpse of the newborn. There was an unspoken question written on his face as he faced his former companion again, and Kratos could do nothing but try to repair the emotionless walls Anna had demolished with her innocent smile.
"I don't want to know what you're up to. Just, come back soon, or he'll take his frustration out on me. And then I'll do the same to you." Yuan said.
He left the way he came, through a path worn down by deer and rabbits, a last statement discernable only to one with the blessed hearing of an angel, "She's cute."
Kratos growled quietly, and Eric and Lira relaxed. Anna stopped her cries.
The married couple did not ask about the blue haired stranger, and Kratos imagined that the reasoning behind it cold have been related to the same spell that he himself wore-
Any who he met along his way could not fully remember his presence.
Most people immediately forgot him, and those who did not could only recall a blurred face or a vague remark. The longer he stayed with a civilian, however, the stronger their memory would become.
Because of her age, Anna would never be able to remember him, that much was obvious. And perhaps Kratos might forget her too, the child he had helped come into this world, as he had forgotten many of his acquaintances over the years.
He doubted it. The idea pained him as nothing had for centuries, worse than a stab wound or an arrow to the chest.
Hours later, Eric and Lira wondered why such a stoic man would want to play with a newborn. They could see the beginnings of a content little smile appearing on his face, lighting up his eyes so full of suffering and ancient wisdom.
They observed silently as their daughter wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his, the contrast in size alluring to her curious nature. He, in turn, marveled at how her entire head could fit in the palm of his hand.
He also wondered why he was so attached to a newborn that would probably die at the Desians' hands before the age of twenty.
But that was beside the point.
Kratos stood, giving the Garris family their only child, and made to leave without a word. Eric stopped him.
"Thank you." He said, bowing slightly.
"Come visit us sometime. We live in Luin, it's not that far from here." His wife added.
Pausing, Kratos realized that leaving was more difficult than he thought. The child would be vulnerable for many years before she could learn to defend herself…
And he had the power to help.
The angel murmured a few words in the Angelic language, words of protection and guidance, and focused only on sending Anna his blessing. He could see the slight shimmer of his trademark blue mana hovering around her body before it sank into her skin.
His task complete, Kratos left the clearing, heading for the cave where he had hidden his rheaird. Flanoir would be pretty this time of year, with the celebration of the Goddess underway…
Anna Garris was protected from mortal wounds for years, and her mischievous personality relied on that protection. Help came to her when it was needed, and though her family was poor, they never truly starved.
Along with those elements he had meant to bless her with, Kratos did not realize that he had added his will to remember her as well.
Consequently, Ann could never forget the sorrowful eyes of the man she had known since birth.
"The blessing of the gods kept her from falling, and brought her back to their arms. Whether intended or by accident, each found contentment with the other and never wanted for more. The blessing lives on in their children, a thriving testament to their love, of gods and of humans."
"Breach the barriers of race and kind with love, for only those who experience both sides and in between can know all."
A/N: Kind of rushed, but, I kind of like the rough, scattered feeling of it.