Guess how much I love you By Truro
Tales of Symphonia © Namco & Kosuke Fujishima
I understand that I may have misspelled the names of a couple of locations in this story, but please forgive my clumsiness.
Anyway,
Five year old Genis Sage walked through the quiet, moonlit streets of Iselia, hand in hand, with his older sister Raine. They had returned from the home of their friend Lloyd, who often asked them over the look at the stars. Raine told Genis to remember the positions of the stars, in case they where ever ran out of town. Genis couldn't understand why anyone would chase them away, but still made sure he remembered where the stars where. He'd do anything for his sister. She was the person he knew best. The person who was always there for him, when he hurt himself, needed a hand with pronouncing a word in a book he was trying to read, or just needed a shoulder to cry on. As they passed a small pond, Genis finally spoke,
"Raine?" said the child,
"Yes?" said the older half-elf,
"Guess how much I love you!" said the boy. Raine smiled from ear to ear,
"Can I have a clue at least?" she asked, in her sweet, silky voice.
"I love you as far as I can skim a stone!", and to make himself quite clear, he picked up a small stone, and skimmed it across the pond. It hopped three times, before diving into the calm, gentle waters,
"Impressive." said Raine, "Making it hop three times is quite good. I'm flattered!" Genis was very please with himself.
Then Raine picked up a stone, "But I love you as far as I can skim one!", then she skimmed it across the pond. Due to her being older, and significantly stronger, Raine made the stone hop all the way to the other side. Well, it was, after all, a small garden pond.
Genis felt a tad guilty. The amount of times Raine got her stone to hop made his seem pitiful.
They finally reached their house. It was nearly time for small children to be in bed.
"I love you to the roof of our house!" said Genis
"Thank you Genis." Said Raine, "Our house is quite tall." then she turned to face him, "But I love you to the roof of the mayors house!" Genis felt a tad guilty. The Mayor owned the tallest house in Iselia.
They went inside. Raine prepared a glass of milk for Genis, and a cup of tea for herself. Genis was pondering something.
"I love you," he said when he had made up his mind, "all the way to Lloyd's house!"
Raine just smiled, "And I love you all the way to Triet!" she said, handing him his glass.
Genis was now feeling sleepy. His mind was wondering what to say next. Raine began tucking him into bed. Then Genis had an idea. There was no way Raine could top this one!
"Sis?" he asked, his baby blue eyes struggling to stay open,
"What is it Genis?" said Raine,
The boy pointed out of the window towards the moon, "I love you all the way to Tethe'alla." He said wearily
The edges of Raines lips pointed straight towards her ears, her smile was so big. She answered this by giving her brother a big kiss on the cheek.
"It's hard to measure a feeling, isn't it?" she asked, as she finished tucking him in.
Genis gave a nod, in agreement, before falling into the land of dreams.
"Besides," said Raine quietly, as she gazed at the stars, from out the window," I love you all the way to Tethe'alla…" she turned her head back to face the sleeping child, "and back again."
The inspiration for this story was a children's book I saw once, of the same title.