"Aww, don't be such a baby, Dirk!"
The younger twin looked at the older with an expression of hurt. It had taken the young twins much planning to escape the watchful gaze of their mother and grandfather. Kratos had refused to reveal his intention to his brother until they had escaped; and now that they had, Dirk was refusing to go along with it. "Mama said there're monsters in there," the boy whined.
The twins had their mother's eyes and smile; their father graced them with his hair and personality, despite having been mostly absent from their short lives. Dirk seemed to be the more mature of the twins, understanding that Daddy had an important mission and he came home whenever he could- which was two years prior, at their third birthday. Their mother thought it a miracle that the boys could remember that he was there.
Kratos, on the other hand, resented his father. Sorely. "Mama's wrong," Kratos replied, hand on his small hip. "Besides, if anything happens to you, I'll protect you!"
Dirk sniffled. "Really really?"
"Really. Now come on! I wanna show you somethin'."
They were both extraordinarily bright, according to Professor Raine Sage. She wanted to start the twins in school next year, a concept both of them balked at. They would've much rather be free to explore, as they were doing now, Dirk on Kratos' heals and he led his brother through the Iselia woods. They came to a clearing with the overgrown ruins of a kind of fortress, long abandoned. Kratos pointed at the ruins. "See see? It's a castle!"
"Wooooooow," Dirk breathed, finally stepping forward. "Wonder if there's treasure in there?"
"Let's go see!" Kratos and Dirk dashed forward through the fortress gates, leading them to the courtyard. "Wow, you can really see the sky!" Kratos exclaimed, hands shielding his eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun.
"Look at that!" Dirk yelled, pointing up to the northern sky. Kratos followed his brother's gaze to a big, falling blue star that split in two. One side of the star kept going on it's trajectory to the north; the other fell, crashing into the trees of Iselia forest. "That looked like it might be a person," Dirk asked, worried.
"Think we should go see?"
"Mama says to never talk to strangers."
"But he might be hurt! Dwarven Vow number two-"
"Okay, okay!" Dirk gave in. "Not the Dwarven vows! Let's go."
The twins started out, crashing into the underbrush off the path, in the direction of the fallen star. They broke into a clearing, and came face to face with a monster.
Screams tore out of their throats, echoing painfully in the canopy of the woods, but it seemed nothing was around to hear them but the monster...
The man stared at his reflection in the stream. Reddish-brown eyes, messy auburn hair.
And no name. He was staring straight at himself, and yet couldn't put a name to the face he was staring at. Amnesia...? Yes, that was it. He remembered nothing but the last painful fifteen minutes. He didn't even know how he ended up in these strange woods.
A child's scream- no, two separate, distinct voices- pierced the air. The man stood abruptly, drew his sword, and dove into the underbrush in the direction of the screams. He saw the monster standing over the two cowering children as he lunged for them, barely managing to thrust his sword between them and the overgrown bug's claw. The swordsman wondered briefly how he knew how to use his weapon when he knew nothing else before tearing the sword upward, amputating the claw from the creature's arm.
One of the children- they were twins, he saw now- dragged the other behind him and demanded, "Who're you ?"
Who ARE you?
He shook the feeling of deja vu from his mind. "Get out of the way," he ordered them, bringing his sword to ready again. The creature howled in fury at him and stabbed at him with it's intact claw. The swordsman blocked and thrust forward, dispatching the monster; it vanished in thin air.
He sheathed his sword and turned to the trembling children. "Are you two all right?"
One to responded, the bigger twin. "We didn't need help!"
"Of course you didn't," the man replied with a slight smile that grew when the smaller twin hit the other. The little man then bowed deep. "Thank you for helping us, mister!"
The man knelt. "What are your names?"
The polite one pointed. "He's Kratos, and I'm Dirk! What's your name?"
"My... name?..." The man concentrated once again, thinking as hard as he could, trying to pull the name from the depths of his memory. "I wish I knew..."
"You don't have a name?" Dirk said. "That's so sad."
"Then we'll give you a name!" Kratos said with a flourish of his little hands, pointing. "You're Bob!"
The swordsman barely held back his laughter. "Bob, huh? It is a good name," he assured the child, then stood. "Where are your parents?"
Dirk and Kratos exchanged looks, then looked around. "Mama and Grandpa are at the house," Dirk offered, "but I'm lost."
"... me too." Kratos sat down with a huff, resting his hands in his chin. "Mama's gonna be mad at us now!"
The man watched the two for a second, then looked up at the sky. "I should get a fire started. The best thing would be to stay here until your mother or grandfather come looking for you."
"What if we get attacked again? Kratos asked, looking up at the man he called Bob.
The man smiled. "Then I'll protect you. Here, be good boys and-"
His words were cut off by a woman's loud scream, "Kratos!" followed by a deeper, accented voice yelling for Dirk. The man looked in the direction of the screams and hollored, "Over here! They're over here!"
There was a moment of hesitation before a blonde woman burst through the underbrush, looking around frantically. "Oh my goddess, you're safe!" she said hurriedly, kneeling and gathering her children to her. She looked up as the other burst into the clearing, a dwarf, whose eyes widened at the sight of the man. "In the name of the Goddess! What're you doing here?"
The woman looked up at this and gasped. The swordman gave them an odd look. "Do you know me?" he asked.
"Well, that's an odd greeting, Kratos," the woman replied, looking slightly disturbed. "I hope they didn't cause you too much trouble. Here, come on, we'll go back to the house and-"
"Mama!" little Kratos squeaked. "His name's Bob! Not Kratos! That's my name!"
The dwarf quirked an eyebrow at the children. "Bob, you say? Kratos?"
"Is that my name?" the swordsman asked quietly.
The woman and dwarf looked at each other, horrified. "He's lost his memory..." the woman said softly.
"So t'would seem," the dwarf replied, stepping towards the swordsman. "Yes, your name's Kratos indeed. This little one's named for ya," he said, ruffling the bigger twin's hair. "I'm Dirk and this is Colette. Ring any bells?"
"N-no, I'm sorry..."
"That's fine, lad, that's fine," Dirk said in a calming tone. "Colette, why don't we take him back to the house? One of us can get Raine in the morning to have a look at him."
"Yes, I think that's a good idea," Colette said, standing and holding little Dirk in her arms.
The dwarf picked up little Kratos, then nodded in the direction they came. "C'mon, lad, the house is this way. Don't you worry, Professor Sage'll fix you right up in a jiffy."
Blinding white filled his vision. Blinding, burning, cold white.
The Seraph drew himself up to his knees, coughing the icy white substance out of his lungs. "Flanoir... wonderful." Yuan shivered, drawing his cape around him closer against the wind, when a thought occured to him. He stood, turning around several times. "Kratos! Kratos! " Then the memory of their separation came back to him. The other angel had run out of mana before they'd landed and had let go to save him, in hopes that he reached their destination unharmed.
He had not reached their destination. He was north of it. Very, very far north.
Cursing, Yuan gazed into the snowstorm intently, searching out the city. His angelic vision allowed him to see it in the distance, and he trudged forward, hoping he reached Flanoir before he froze to death.
Otherwise, he thought to himself grimly, the world dies with me.
