A/N: hello everyone! I'm back for another helping and I hope your ready for it! Because this chapter is mostly about the poor duo and their exploits to catch up with others, lets hope Lloyd keeps being as observant and sharp-eyed as he's proved to be in the past seventeen-years because he's gonna need it! (thank you to all my loyal reviewers, but it's kinda getting lonely in the review box... can someone else join us... please? Not that I'm not grateful to you Cuxis and hina)

The prelude to an interesting predicament

Once again Yggdrasil sat, listening, on his familiar line of power. He had his legs swinging out below him and he was enjoying the sound of his panpipes as the music rebounded off of the dense air and created a cage of music around, he started to play faster and louder, reaching out with his left arm to feel the vibrations of sound bouncing and sliding off of his skin.

He laid the pipes on his lap and pulled the tome that had been resting next to him into his hands, keeping it together only through magic, he flipped deftly to the last page in the book and read the inscriptions that were engraved there for a while, the smiled to himself and dropped the book, watching it disintegrate as it feel then he laughed heartily as he used the power of sight to watch as a shiver of disgust rifled down Raine's spine... and spied a young girl smiling widely and hovering close to Kratos as the group walked "hmm? I wonder what she's up to... cute"

Lloyd helped pull Genis up and onto Noishe, who huffed in happiness to be with the two boys, and they set off Lloyd urging Noishe forward by leaning down and pulling out random tasty looking vegetation and feeding it to Noishe, believing that both a rider and his mount should share the work. After a while Noishe ran up and gave the unsuspecting village guards huge licks to the face.

The guards chuckled good-naturedly and patted Noishe on the head, then one saw the mayor approaching and said loudly "Lloyd, you know not to take your... uh, dog... thing in here! You'll have to leave him here with us, so we can supervise him" the other one smiled happily and the first one continued in a whisper "sorry, but you how that old coot can get, say goodbye to Colette for me ok?"

Lloyd sighed and whispered "all right, take care of him, I'll come later" the two men smiled broadly and continued to pet and scratch Noishe in all his favorite spots as Lloyd walked away, going towards the square, expecting to see Colette.

Lloyd muttered "no..." and dropped to the ground "Genis, you said they would wait for us... where did they go?" Genis turned and saw the mayor, looking as happy as can be, extremely prim and proper. Genis curled his fists into a ball "Lloyd that... that demon, I think he made them leave!" he heard the voice of Mrs. Miyura, the item shop assistant, saying "It's true, I was talking to the poor girl and he threatened the mercenary with something... I'm not sure what but trust me... this is the last time he ruins another person's life! Go home you two, I'll talk with him"

Lloyd got up quickly and drew a sword "no i'll deal with him now" Genis realized what his best friend was planning to do and he wrapped his arms around Lloyd "wait no Lloyd, that isn't the way to resolve this, here come with me" Genis had to practically drag Lloyd, who wasn't resisting, away before Lloyd finally said "fine" got up, and followed him.

The two went into the Iselia forest and up a path Lloyd recognized well,but they stopped somewhere odd, the split between two roads, the first leading on, and the second leading to the ranch. "My stop is here Lloyd" Genis said, Lloyd froze and whipped around "what? Whoa whoa whoa, you are not going in there..." Lloyd pointed strongly at the human ranch "without me" he finished his sentence.

Genis drew in a deep breath to argue but stopped hen he heard Lloyd finish "um... ok then, we're going to see a friend of mine, Marble, she never gets enough food and I have my lunch, when Raine asked about the food I told her I was getting a growth spurt" Lloyd just stared at his friend for a while before saying "thank goodness, I was worried you were going to blame me for those disappearing sandwiches one of these days"

After chatting with Marble for a while a group of desian gaurds approached her, and the two boys hid but she was still punished for not working, when the group had turned their backs Lloyd and Genis got into their respective hiding spots and Genis casted fireball to rock them off balance. Genis dropped down and started to crawl along the bushes as Lloyd distracted the now enraged gaurds for his friend.

Much more enemies started to pour out of the building and ran towards Lloyd, who in turn sprinted and jumped off of the cliff edge. Genis successfully found his way out and started to head back towards the town to meet back up with Lloyd. Lloyd approached his father, Dirk, and asked him "Dad, will you teach me how to make a key crest?" knowing that his father would have him keep the crest that was made as a reminder of the lesson.

Dirk squinted hard at his son, and then asked a simple yet extremely difficult question "why?" as a response Lloyd blurted out "why! Well uh... because I forgot... and this mercenary came through town today and he didn't have one, but still had an ex-sphere"

Dirk muttered "and where did he get it?" Lloyd knew that this wasn't going anywhere good so he said "I don't know, I didn't have the chance to ask" Dirk studied Lloyd before saying in his Laconic tone "no." Lloyd blanched "why not! He needs help doesn't he?" Dirk countered with " I won't waste precious materials on someone I don't know, I'm sorry"

Lloyd backed away "...fine then..." and left, heading back to the village.

A/N: Boy oh boy am I tired, hope you liked it, I know it was a bit weird... and long, please review and good night!