RS: I finally learned how to make new chapters!
Lloyd: Thank the Goddess Martel.
RS: You have too long a sentence of exasperation.
Lloyd: What?
RS: Just say the disclaimer.
Lloyd: 'Red Seraphim doesn't own Tales of Symphonia, but he does own his own character'.
Chapter 2: Human Nature
Lloyd was immediately on his guard when he heard the boy say 'Desians'. He picked up his other sword, and moved to the other side of the boy, just in case the boy somehow escaped Kratos's grasp.
"Did the Desians send you here?" Kratos asked.
The boy seemed to consider this question for a moment, breaking his robotic expression for the merest second. "Yes." He said.
"To follow us?" Kratos asked, continuing to question the boy.
"Yes, and to attempt an assassination of Lloyd Irving." The boy answered.
Lloyd took the boy from Kratos and looked deep into the boy's eyes. The boy seemed to melt under the gaze that he met in those eyes. "Why did the Desians send you here to kill me?!" He yelled into the boy's face.
The boy whimpered. He seemed to have come out of his robotic state when he had seen the fury in Lloyd's eyes. "Where- where am I?!" He shouted in an ecstasy of fright.
"Don't play that game with me!" Lloyd shouted. He seized the boy by the throat and held a sword dangerously close to the boy's Adam's-apple.
The boy, far from being extremely calm under almost the same treatment from Kratos, started to cry, almost cutting his own throat when he started to try and fold his body into the fetal position. He started to say a word that Lloyd half-identified as 'help', but it eventually just turned into as high-pitched scream.
Kratos rushed over to Lloyd and retched the boy away from Lloyd and his blades. "Lloyd! He really doesn't know what you are talking about! Don't hurt him!" He shouted.
Lloyd just stood there, stunned. He had never acted like that before. Never. He could have never killed in cold blood before. But now…
Kratos sat the boy down and tried to make eye-contact with the boy, but the boy was staring steadily at the ground, unmoving.
"What's your name?" Kratos asked, with a calm and assuring tone.
The boy took a couple of deep breaths and then he spoke. "Erythro." He answered very quickly, as if he was afraid that he would get hurt if he answered too slowly.
"Calm down, Erythro. Calm…" Kratos said, soothingly.
Erythro took a few more breaths.
"Good…good…" Kratos said, encouraging Erythro to take his breaths a little more slowly.
"Now, why were you trying to find Lloyd?" Kratos asked.
"I…I can't…" The boy started.
Kratos sighed, as if he had expected that answer, but he was still sorry to hear it. He rummaged through one of their traveling packs, and he handed the boy a blanket. "Here. Rest." Kratos said to Erythro.
Erythro nodded, then he folded the blanket into the crude shape of a pillow, then he lay down by the fire and fell asleep.
Kratos walked over to Lloyd, who was still standing in the spot where he had been contemplating where his moral compass had gone slightly askew.
"Lloyd?" Kratos asked quietly.
Lloyd didn't answer.
"Lloyd…" Kratos said.
"I…I was going to kill him…I was going to cut his throat, Kratos. I was going to kill him!" He whispered, growing louder with each sentence.
"Shh. Shh. Calm down." Kratos said softly.
Lloyd took some deep breaths, just like the boy Erythro had done. His breathing eventually slowed, and he calmed down.
"What happened, Lloyd?" Kratos asked, calmly.
"I…I thought he was a Desian…I thought he was one…I thought he was responsible for my mom's death." Lloyd said slowly.
Kratos's face hardened. "Lloyd. Not all the Desians killed you're mother. There were probably no more than seven Desians. And, if she was extremely important to their operation, they would send one of their Cardinals. No more then a party of eight." Kratos said.
Lloyd stared into the fire. "But…he was working for the Desians…" Lloyd said.
"No, not willingly." Kratos said. "Do you know why he was acting extremely robotic? He was under a form of hypnosis - a kind that would make a sort of that they use to make shock troops. They change them into soldiers so they can decrease their own casualties." Kratos said, with the slightest hint of contempt in his voice.
Lloyd shuddered, and then he made a sort of soft wailing sound. Kratos put a hand on Lloyd's back as he sat there, weeping.
RS: These chapters are pretty short.
Lloyd: Yeah, but hey, you've never really done this before, right?
RS: Yeah, but I used to be able to write a couple of pages worth in the free time I had a school.
Lloyd: Red, those stories, frankly, didn't make any sense at all. They changed with you're experiences of the day, and the plot was totally un-constant.
RS: …Yeah, but they were still a couple of pages.
Lloyd: Red, 15 pages of ramblings are worth a single paragraph of good sense.
RS: …Mmm. Whatever.