Long Ago

The Tale Of A Dead Mother

Inspired completely by a fanfic entitled "Thoughts On A Forbidden Romance" by Lady Nephenee Ranulf. I must give this writer credit. Just from reading this story it has given me the inspiration to write this fanfic. I don't own Tales Of Symphonia or its characters, just wanted to write something about them. SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE GAME DO NOT READ THIS FANFIC! Finish the game first and be a good little fan. SPECIAL THANKS TO LADY NEPHENEE RANULF, TAKAMINEROCKS, KRATOS WILDER, Lyra the Sorceress of Scholars, Sunfrost, Vincent's Angel of ChaosTabatha is MartelFehizeWindRyu HyrokoServant of Mother Earth AND CLEARHEART FOR REVIEWING!

This part is more about a normal life and living in the middle of no where lol. The story gets slower if you haven't noticed, but not many stories actually write the part where they live and have Lloyd, I plan on doing that. It's not going to go day by day like it has been doing lol, but more or less chunks and yes, there will be cute baby Lloyd and Daddy Kratos scenes, but I have to get there first lol. This thing's going to be a long story still...

Chapter 14----Pains

The wedding wasn't elaborate or fancy, but in a sense it was absolutely perfect. The priest had agreed to the middle of the night, Kratos and Anna claiming more or less that Anna's father didn't want her to marry Kratos, hence the time and place in secret. Yuan had met up with them, and was witness to his friend's happiest and reserved moment, one of only four that would ever know its existence.

Yuan had an unexpected gift for the couple, something Kratos had not seen in a very long time, a pair of rings that were originally supposed to be his…and Martel's. He didn't mind giving them up for Kratos, even though Kratos saw in his eyes it pained him to hand them over, the pair of gold bands he had been saving, and was willing to let go for them.

It was back to the Inn in the mountains afterwards, and Yuan separated once again from his friend and his new wife, not knowing where they would be or where they would go. Yuan just hoped that Kratos would get into contact with him soon, especially if he needed help.

Their new life could begin now. Anna was no longer AO12, but Anna Aurion.

"You need to go to sleep," Kratos replied to Anna, having been at home for some time but her body was excited and everywhere else but in the present, or perhaps too much in the present.

"Why? It's nearly dawn anyway," Anna stated, grabbing much of the food they still had and walking downstairs for the first time, where the kitchen and bathing room were.

"And what do you plan on doing otherwise?" Kratos called after her, getting her to sit still was proving to be a chore far worse than fighting off a dozen monsters. "Your body will be exhausted before long."

"I plan to organize the kitchen!" she yelled up, before entering the large area. It was covered in stone, stone walls, stone floor, stone cooking place. The only thing that wasn't the grey stone were the wooden cabinets along the top of the walls, the wooden rooms above its ceiling.

Kratos followed in her steps like he had done a dozen times before, peering into a shut door, where there were four large baths and what looked to be a large heater that must have been for water.

"After that, come in here, we should clean out your wound," Kratos said in an ordering tone as he had done before, walking in and turning on one of the thin faucets to one of the dark tubs, feeling the heater and finding the switch to turn on the blaze.

"Again?" Anna said from the doorway. Kratos felt the warming water, before he saw Anna from the corner of his eyes, her wound not the only skin exposed.

He practically fell into the bath.

Kratos woke to the afternoon light on his back, his chest against the covers of the bed but Anna no longer under his arm. Somehow he had slept longer into the day than she had? He sat up, the covers draped and falling onto his lower back as he looked around, but Anna was no where in sight, and neither were her clothes.

Where had she gotten to now?

He sat up and found his pants, slipping them on before he heard laughter from outside. He stood up and walked to the window, before seeing Noishe bouncing around like a puppy from a few yards away and Anna in a tree again, one leg dangling down while the other was on the branch under the rest of her, a bundle of green plants under her arm.

"Hang on, hang on," Anna said to Noishe, "Just a second."

She slid her leg down, carefully standing on the thick branch and balancing herself low, before jumping down and landing on Noishe' back. Noishe charged forward, bringing her back around where Kratos could no longer see, but heard the door open a few short moments later and close quietly. There was a new smell coming from the outside, like herbs or roots, before he found his shirt and shoulder top and resituated them on his body.

The room door was slightly ajar, but it didn't open, Anna wasn't coming in here and probably thought that Kratos was still asleep.

He heard a quiet humming then as he slipped his boots on, buckling them into place before stepping out into the tall hallway and seeing the room next to theirs was open and full of light. He walked into the doorway, looking to see that Anna strung a thick rope across the room, tying bunches of the green leaves and plants up-side down across it and letting them hand and dry. She was humming to herself, tying a few more bunches as her hair was once again tied back with the ribbon. She turned around as she saw his silhouette out of the corner of her eye.

"Hello there, sleepy head," Anna said in a peaceful voice.

"What are you doing?" Kratos asked.

"Drying herbs I found around here," Anna stated, "Medicine, tea, spices, they're everywhere up the mountain a bit. And downstairs there's all sorts of supplies, that's where I found the rope and twine."

"Then why were you up in the tree?" Kratos asked, wondering what sort of herbs were up there.

"Oh, you were watching," Anna said in a sneaky tone. "If you have to know I was hiding from Noishe, he found me pretty quick though."

Kratos looked at her with a simple smile and shook his head slightly.

"How long have you been awake?" Kratos questioned, walking in further and sliding up beside Anna, taking a bundle of the herbs and tying them with the string near Anna's feet, cutting it with the small somewhat dull dagger near her feet.

"Oh an hour or so," Anna answered lightly.

"What were you humming?" Kratos asked curiously, tying the plants roots up in an open spot.

"Something my mother used to sing to me," Anna replied, tying hers up next to it. "She used to do this once a year, but there were far more plants to deal with, and it took a day just to cut and string them up, and another day to take them all down after they had dried."

"You must have sold them, grown them first," Kratos stated, tying another bundle.

"My parents had a farm, my sister and brother and I used to help around with it," Anna replied, slowly tying her next bundle. "Most of the time I just watched and listened to my mother sing."

Kratos watched her carefully, a few more questions in his eyes but he did not ask them.

"I was sixteen when they took me," Anna said quietly, "Took all of us from our home. My dad thought…we'd be far enough out not to have Desians interfere with our lives, I guess they ran out of humans to experiment on."

Anna strung her next bundle as Kratos listened carefully.

"Everyone was separated, sent to different places as far as I could tell, and as far as I know they're still wherever they ended up or dead."

"Sing again," Kratos whispered quietly, trying to get her mind away from the past. Anna looked at him, before she let her voice ring out, singing what he had been humming before, and continuing with the simple chore.

"Have you ever picked up one of these?" Kratos questioned, pulling his sword from its hilt and handing Anna the handle.

They ended up outside in the colder end of the day, the sun still high but the shade from the trees just outside the Inn giving them a place to be.

"A sword?" Anna asked, "I went from a farmer to a slave, Kratos the Swordsman."

"You know how to use a whip, however," Kratos stated, referring to their escape some week before.

"Well," Anna said smartly. "Sometimes the guards try to take advantage of girls, I had to use what they had against them."

"Hmph," Kratos grumbled, stepping behind Anna and placing his hand on her elbow.

"What's the point of this exercise?" Anna questioned, letting him move her like a doll.

"Training," Kratos replied. "In case you need to defend yourself and I am not here to protect you."

"And how often do you plan on leaving me?" Anna asked seriously as Kratos showed her slowly how to strike with the strength from her wrist.

"Pay attention," he ordered quietly, still not giving Anna her answer. "Like this."

He held her wrist with his gloved hand, showing her how to twist it to her advantage.

"Soon," Anna said without another word as she mimicked the move he had shown her. Kratos still didn't answer her. "Why soon?"

"We need money, food, I know how to make it," Kratos stated.

"And if I go with you, there's a higher chance of us getting caught," Anna finished his words, sighing heavily and striking the move faster.

Kratos stepped back from her, taking the sword from her hand and having a new idea, something that may have been easier to start out with. Anna watched him carefully as he went to the back of the Inn, large branches of wood back there waiting to be chopped for the winter, but instead he found a thinner branch and pulled it from the others, chopping it in half and sheering the smaller branches off in two swift moves, making two wooden poles a little over his arm's length. He sheathed his sword again, picking up both branches in either hand and walking back to Anna, throwing her one of the poles.

"You are fast. I know that because I have seen it," Kratos stated. "And strong as well. But you must know how to move in order to defeat any opponent, and feel them out before you can use either."

Anna nodded once, taking the air into her lungs as she grew nervous, her feet spreading a part slightly. Kratos stepped closer to her, situating her arm again and letting her hold it.

"I shall hit you, watch what I do," Kratos said sternly, before striking her stick, the feeling vibrating through her arm. She held it tightly still as he did it slower, before holding his stick up for her to try it.

This slow practice went on for the rest of the daylight, but steps were added, and the moves became harder and more complicated, before the speed increased. It was simple to Kratos, but he knew that this was harder for her, as it may have been for him when he had to learn how to find, so long ago.

That was when it happened, her hand glowed purple before she let out a scream. Her hand pulsed with pain, it shooting from the crystal and running all through her body. It hadn't hurt like this since she had it first embedded inside her, but suddenly it was screaming out again. Kratos caught her and held her waist, looking at her as if he had hurt her but her arm and hand shook, it clenching into his shirt as her teeth clenched together. He placed his own hand on hers, his own crystal glowing and casting both their faces in white, before the pain began to cease from her body, her breathing settling.

"How did you…" Anna asked, looking up into his brown eyes in question. He shook his head, as confused as she was as to what exactly happened. Her head fell against his shoulder, her forehead sweaty from the day's work as well as her sudden episode.

"It felt like it was when they put it into my hand," she whispered, leaning harder against him. He held her closer and held her hand tighter, the glowing stopping.

Anna's stomach growled painfully, her face backing away as she laughed.

"I should make something," Anna said lightly, looking at Kratos easily and kissing his mouth, before leading him inside, his hand still holding hers.

Down in the kitchen it was hot, Anna making a stew of some sort with roots she had found, and spices as well as some of the dried meat.

"I went to Kvar's ranch three months ago," Anna stated, the aroma from the pot boiling heavenly, "After my crystal changed. "Evolved" was the word they used."

Kratos searched the low cupboards, before finding the glass bowls Anna had said she found earlier, pulling two of them out as he placed them next to the wooden spoons Anna had found, using one to stir her creation.

"They said I would be perfect for him, or his experiments, whatever they were going to be," Anna replied, trying her stew carefully after blowing on its hot contents, before leading the spoon over to Kratos and making him try some as well. It tasted tangy, and milky on his tongue, something mild about it as well. "I assumed it was mostly going to be after I was dead."

"You would have assumed correctly," Kratos stated, wiping some of the substance from his chin as it had dribbled from the spoon.

"When are you leaving?" Anna questioned suddenly, pouring some of the stew into the top bowl as it steamed, before placing it aside and pouring it into the other as well.

"Perhaps tomorrow morning," Kratos said, the natural state of eating becoming a part of him once again as he picked up the bowl and taking the other wooden spoon as Anna picked up her bowl as well, leaning against the stone wall, its cold surface a welcome to her back.

"Perhaps?" Anna asked, sighing heavily, feeling a little pain that he was leaving so soon but not letting it show as she ate.

"It shall depend," Kratos stated, his stance taller as he ate as well.

"On what?"

"On you."

Anna ate her spoonful, before sending Kratos a curious look.

"Why me?" Anna asked, walking back to the pot for some more of the stew. Kratos set his bowl down on the stone top, walking up behind her and standing rather close. His breath fell in her neck and ear.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked simply. Anna scooped another spoonful from the pot, trying to ignore him as she attempted not to smile for being so near.

"If you leave tomorrow, you will be back sooner than if you leave later," Anna said logically, eating some of her stew. "And I want you to be back sooner, but that means I'll have to kick the other handsome, strong swordsman out early before you come back."

Kratos growled with the playful banter, knowing she was kidding around but unhappy with the thought none the less. He grabbed her hand embedded with the parasitical crystal, lifting it in front of both of them and looking at its structure.

"How does it feel?" he asked her.

"Fine, now," Anna answered, looking at it as well, before sliding her fingers in between his. "What do you think it was?"

Kratos shook his head, his cheek rubbing against her hair.

"Hopefully it will never happen again," Kratos said, letting go of her and slipping back towards the pot, glancing into it and seeing there was still quite a bit of the substance left. "What are we to do with the rest of this?"

"Noishe hasn't eaten yet," Anna said having planned to feed him the whole time as well, as she ate the rest of her batch. Kratos turned to her as she held the spoon in her mouth, before she pulled it back out. "What?"

"You want to feed Noishe?" Kratos questioned.

"The dog's got to eat, hasn't he?" Anna laughed, "Pick up the pot, we'll bring it outside to him."

End Chapter 14