MoonCannon: As always thanks MoonCannon for your steady reviews.

FairyV: I'm responding to your review from chapter one. First off, yes I view what you said as constructive criticism. I didn't even know I was writing in slang because those sayings are such an ingrained part of speech where I live I didn't even notice them. It's good that you pointed that out, I'll fix the ones I can catch when I do that edit I was talking about earlier... As for training, I'm self trained, I taught myself with wildly informal methods, so technically I'm not really trained at all. It's because of that I miss grammar, slang, and other small details -it didn't help that I slept a lot during school when I was younger- that you and other readers seem to catch.

By the way, how did you guess where I live? You're the first person to get it right too... Yes I'm from North America, a citizen of the US, "and all that jazz" as one of my professors is so fond of saying.

And well in my comp the chapter count is up to 41 and I'm not done yet... Keep in mind all those chapters are in RD format, so I have to fix them up before I toss them here, but the RD uncompleted fic is 41 chapter and only 30 or so pages shy of 400. So yeah, this is a TOS novel.

Now on with the next installment...

Izoold

Chapter 20

Lloyd lay in their arms. Held by both mother and father he slept. He had had another nightmare, the one where he would wake up screaming. He never told them about it, he just would stare at them for a long moment. Then the tears would start. Nothing they could do or say would sooth those tears, and he would fall asleep in their arms with a wet face. First they thought it to be Noishe's absence, and after a long talk they decided to let the protozoan back into their son's room. It didn't work, he still was having nightmares. Anna was asleep, she had fallen asleep right after Lloyd, only he was awake. Kratos sighed softly, and looked at their son in wonder. He was two, barely two, and he was waking up with horrors.

Kratos had woken up with horrors after his first battle, after his first murder, but certainly not at this young age. He tried to remember, tried to recall being younger, but couldn't . He could fuzzily remember that he had nightmares, but he had to have been older because he was by himself. He had been alone most of his life though...

Lloyd yawned, stirred a bit, and rolled over so that he was facing his Father. His dark brown eyes warmed as he recognized his Daddy, and he reached over. Kratos winced as his hair was tugged, but Lloyd was not so rough, he only gave it a small little tug.

"Daee!"

"Good morning Lloyd." Kratos kept his voice to a whisper. "Shh Mommy's sleeping... we need to be quiet."

"Daee..." Lloyd squirmed a little, Kratos knew that look. Lloyd was up for the time being. "Sowy."

"Sorry? Why are you apologizing?" Kratos tilted his head to the side and Lloyd giggled quietly.

Lloyd squirmed a little more and Kratos scooted back a bit. Lloyd, using his Father as a prop found his feet. He was walking a bit now, clumsy, but doing well for someone so young. Lloyd flopped down, buried his Father in a hug, or rather his Father's face. Lloyd giggled a little louder as his Father gently scooped him up, and carried him from the room. Anna would be angry when she woke up, for he didn't start the fire. But Kratos didn't feel comfortable placing Lloyd on the floor while he placed the heavy slabs of wood in the grate, while he worked with the flint. He also was not exposing his son to mana of any type.

Anna would just have to deal with being cold, and he would have to deal with Anna's anger at being woken up cold.

Noishe saw them leave the room, and with a quiet good morning bark padded into the bedroom. Well Anna wouldn't wake up cold, but she'd wake up mad anyways.

Lloyd giggled again, reached for the upraised tail as it passed. Noishe, a long time veteran of Lloyd tail pulling fetish, merely dipped his tail while he passed the Aurion men and whipped it back up as he pushed open the door. There was a pause, a creek, and a few muttered words by Anna.

"Uh oh!"

"Uh oh indeed, hmm I believe we should make a strategic retreat about now. Let us go for a quick stroll Lloyd."

"Walk!"

Then there was another good morning bark followed shortly by a shriek.

"Kratos! Get your dog out of our room!"

She was talking to an empty house however, her menfolk had wisely made themselves scarce.

(one of these has to show up whatever one it is will be my new asteric symbol)

"You Kratos are in so much trouble!"

"Mrs. Aurion, whatever have I done wrong?"

Kratos had decided to make himself scarce for a few hours, hoping time would dull his wife's anger. He and Lloyd had strolled on the beach of Izoold for an hour. He had a pleasant time watching Lloyd chase after seagulls and watching crabs. There had been a quick scare when one of those crabs had gotten annoyed enough to chase Lloyd. He dealt with the situation, sparing the animal, and by way of two sticks carried it to the ocean. Now he was home, and Anna was giving him heck over that morning. With the sea in his nostrils and Lloyds laughter still in his ears Kratos could not find it in himself to be annoyed.

"Where have you been?"

"Out, a little walk."

"Before sun rise!"

"Lloyd was up and filled with energy. I figured you would wish to keep sleeping..."

"Humph!"

"Amazing, our positions are reversed."

Lloyd oblivious to his parents anger went on playing with the stuffed animal Kratos had just bought him. It was impulsive, Kratos knew that such little impulses would whittle away at there tight income, but he couldn't help himself. Anna was angry about the cold, the splurge on his part, and probably his strange behavior.

"Kratos we are running low on money and..."

"Is it really that important?" Anna looked ready to snap out a response, but Kratos firmly turned her so she could see their son. "Does it really mean that much Anna? Look how happy he is, all for what, a piece of gald?" He drew her to him, she leaned on him and he enfolded her in a hug. "It is not that important, we can make do with little, we have both done so before, and if it gets really bad I can cheat. You know that."

"Oh Kratos I don't want you to have to fight to make money, I don't..."

"I wont, not if I do not have to." He kissed her, regarded Lloyd with somber eyes. "Not just for you, but for him."

Anna sighed, then ribbed him. He mock winced, and Anna seeing an opening fell on his lowered guard with playful fingers. He laughed, strangled, and was down in less then a minute. Anna sat on her kill and Noishe came in to deliver the finishing strike. He struggled, squirmed, but Anna held him down while Noishe tried his best to lick off the seraphim's face.

"Late again are we?"

Kratos winced, he had hoped that his employer would miss seeing him slip in. It was strange after four millennia to be given orders by someone weaker then himself. He held a lot of scorn for the tar smeared man. Urik was a crude, blunt, and unclean man. He also had a foul mouth, and an even fouler temper.

"What en Hell ye standin' there for, git to work. No pay fer today though, 'cuz ye were late o' course."
Kratos grimaced, considered protesting.

"An' no story 'bout yer family keepin' ye. I don't give a rat's ass one way or the other what kept ye."

"Understood."

Swallowing his rage Kratos sighed and went to the docks. A multitude of fishing boats were suspended by rope and wenches above the sea. Urik's employees would tend to the various leaks and patch ups that were needed. And then after a day the boat would be put back in water. If one of the men's patch ups failed all of the men would get no pay. Men who had no skill were swiftly culled out of the business, many were even beaten. They had tried that with Kratos, he had failed two ships in a row with the same group. They had come after him at his home, had threatened his wife and son.

None of those men had made it back to there homes. There were rumors of course, but nothing ever came of them, no bodies were found, no proof that they even had come to the Aurion house. Kratos was very thorough about tending all the little details.

Despite those rumors he was actually regarded as a bit of a challenge by some of the women in the small port town. He had women flirting with him, vying for his attention, even though he was married. And simply saying he was wed would not deture them, how Zelos could eventoleratit was beyond him. He felt much like a deerwho was beingbeaded by a master marksman, and took no pleasure from that sensation.

As it was he really didn't know how to take all the attention, as a young man he had been consumed by duty and self preservation. He served loyally any who paid him, drifted from job to job, and when he finally joined up with Martel's little expedition he had fallen in with Martel's ideals. Oh he hadn't believed them all, he agreed more with Mithos' edicts then Martel's, but he lived by both of those codes as best as he could. He had spent years working along side the half elven outcasts, had part through mishap and plan actually stopped the ancient Kharlan wars. Now after all of that, and a massive span of life as a Seraphim, he was reduced to this. Laying under these elevated boats, applying tar, and wooden planks to holes.

"Hey Ruian!" One of his more friendly co-workers smiled to him, he was missing a tooth, and already covered in tar. "Late yet again huh?"

"Aye," He picked up what he needed with a grimace. "How is Issia doing?"

"Well, very well. Pregnant again. And your Anna, how's she doing?"

"Congratulations." Kratos smiled, he liked Syt a little. The man was simple, but good intentioned. Not malicious, or desperate, as were most of Urik's employees. "She is in good health, a little snippy."

"Aye, aren't all women? I hear a dog beat you this morning."

"Noishe? Oh yes, but he had help."

Syt laughed, his wife and Anna were very close. Syt would know everything his wife knew, for they both had a very honest relationship. The Syt'sloved to talk, Anna loved to talk, and for the first time in a very long time Kratos had visitors frequent his house. Well it was their house, not just his. Lloyd was adored by the Syt family, while Anna adored the three children of the fisher folk. Kratos didn't exactly like the Syt's children, they seemed more noisy, annoying, but he wiselynever mentioned it. Asboth menducked under the slender belly of the first fishermans ship Syt kept talking, all about his family, his kids, and his wife, his parents. Kratos grudgingly tossed out slivers of information, was a little vague, but that never bothered Syt. Syt respected Kratos' privacy, never really pried, he just chattered away to cover Kratos' extended silences. Soon all chatter died down, the other co-workers came up to the boat and began to work.

It was strange really, he would lay on his back for hours. Over his head a boat hung, a series of planks a rude frame, that had wooden supports that connected to the platform where Urik's workers lay. They all lay, a few feet apart, side by side, passing wood or small buckets of tar back and forth.

Such a closeness did not lead to a great deal of comradery though. Most of the men did their jobs sullen faced, worked, and prayed that their efforts would reap them some pay. Kratos didn't much care for the workers attitudes, and Syt didn't either, they both took pide and effort in what they did if not pleasure. The other men were drones, they did as ordered then stopped. Obviously they didn't understand that their pay would probably be more likely if they put more into the work then slapping tar and wood and praying to Martel it held.

They worked for five hours, then came out of the wooden cave and ate. During the lunch break Syt sat by his silent friend, a thoughtful look on his face. Kratos, as always. was grinding up the bread of his sandwich and tossing out to the sea. The seagulls did quick swoop and dive stunts at the edge of the dock, all vying for the bread Kratos tossed them.

"Nice how you fed the birds an' all..." Syt bit into his own sandwich, his eyes curious. "You know, this I'll seem mighty strange, but I can't think of a time I saw you eat a full meal."

"Anna stuffs me before I leave the house each morning."

"Huh, I've seen the size of her dinners an' all, they don't seem all that big."

"I have a delicate stomach."

"Ahh, 'K then, you don't want me to pry, I wont, sorry."

"You were not prying, merely concerned. Do not worry, I am in good health, and I wont suffer any from my somewhat strange eating habits."

"Aye, just don't make yourself sick. But if you do fall on it rough, you know that we'll always chip in 'til you catch your feet, right?" At Kratos silence Syt snorted. He had picked that up from being with Kratos and Anna for so long. "Didn't know did ya? You're a stubborn man Ruian, you draw on no one save yourself. Well you have friends, well me and my family at least. So if you need anything, anything at all, you just ask and we'll help."

"Thanks..."

"And if you don't ask we'll nose around and if we think you need something and are bein' stubborn we'll ram it down your throat till you take it."

Kratos glared at the fisherman and the man just shrugged off the glare. He had learned working with Kratos these past few weeks to shrug off glares and sarcasm. In Syt's mind they were friends, Kratos was just a strange man, a good person, just a little off. So Syt shrugged off the glare like so many others he had received.

"What if I said the rumors about me were true?"

"Which ones?" Syt smiled, then shrugged. "You mean the one where you might of killed those other boat patchers? The ones that were talkin' about pealing off your hide and usin' it on the next boat."

"It was not my hide they were after, they were going to kill my wife and son to teach me a lesson."

Syt looked at Kratos for a long moment, he had after all just confessed to murder. Syt scratched at the his scraggly chin, he was trying to grow out a beard, or so he claimed. Kratos figured the boat patcher was just doing it to irritate his wife. After a full minute Syt shrugged, bent down to retrieve the bucket of oil.

"I'd say, good for you. You saved your wife and kid from some damn nasty minded brigands. Oh they might have been fisher folk by profession but they were brigands at heart. They attacked the weaker people here, steal what pay they earn, then threaten the stronger ones families." Syt's hand clenched around the bucket's handle, it was so tight that the knuckle paled. "I'd say you did more then I ever could."

"I apologize, I was unaware."

"And if you were would you have dolled out justice on them?"

"Yes," Syt looked up startled at the ice in his friends tone. "I probably wouldn't have killed them, it all depends on what they did to you, and how long they have been doing this to others."

"Aye you got some cold bits in you don't you?" A flicker of a thought came into Syt's eyes. A glimmer of fear. "You never told me what you did before you came here."

"I never did." Kratos agreed, his voice quiet.

"We're friends aren't we? You can come clean with old Syt."

"Really?" Kratos' lip curled in a dark smile. "I was a mercenary, I have left that life and its sins behind me. But they are many, those dark deeds, and they run deep."

"Aye, that's what the sea is for friend. We come here to clean away the past when it needs to be cleaned."

Kratos turned to the ship patcher with a humored smile on his lips.

"You are wise Syt."

"Nah, just been livin' here too long. You get corny after a while, lookin' at the water all the time. Speakin' of lookin' I'm thinking we need to go get lookin' at the next ship."

Taking the hint Kratos picked up the bucket of tar and joined the ship patcher in his work.

(asterics here)

There was no knock, the houses main door swung open. Kratos jerked, fell out of his near meditative trance, and firmly disentangled Anna's arm from around his neck. Anna muttered something, then rolled over, fell deeper into sleep. Kratos pulled himself out of bed, then snatched his sword from where it lay propped up against the wall. Not bothering with the belt, or even clothes, he padded across the room, broadsword in hand. He quietly opened the door, and say a dark form across the room that served as kitchen and living quarters to the Aurion house hold. Whoever it was, their back was turned, and they thoughtfully closed the door behind them.

Huh, that didn't make sense, thieves normally didn't close and lock the door behind them, it closed a good escape route.

Which meant that Kratos wasn't dealing with a thief, a person with a more sinister thought in mind would think to close the door, and lock it behind them. It closed an escape route for his victims.

In the darkness Kratos slid, his sword drawn. Whoever it was they were having a problem of some sort. He moved to re-open the door. Kratos didn't give him that chance. He covered the length of the room, and slammed his opponent into the wall. There was a rip of fabric, a grunt, then the intruder was pinned against the wall. A fistful of tunic in one hand the ex-mercenary lifted his foe, in the other he pressed his sword against the throat of the would be...

"Kratos, it's me, Syt!"

Startled the Seraphim took a step back, loosed the fisherman.

"My Goddess, Anna wasn't joking when she said never to come here after you all turned in."

"What is the meaning of this?" Kratos' voice was pure malice, and Sty shook at the tone. The fisherman swallowed, gathered his courage and his feet.

"There was some stranger in town, at the pub... He was asking about a mercenary and his slave... I didn't tell anyone, I was just taken old Kith home 'cuz he was couldn't do it himself.. I over heard it..."

Kratos swallowed, ordered himself to remain calm.

"The person did not see you?"

"No, I heard it through a window, Kith was ahh out back, so I went there to fetch him and take him home."

"You did not run straight here?"
"Hell no, what do you think I am stupid!"

Kratos smiled a little at that, pulled the man to his feet. Syt was staring openly at the seraphim's scared form.

"Sweet goddess, what the Hell happened to you?"

"A lot." Kratos stepped back into the concealing shadows and leaned his sword against the nearest wall. "You should go home. I probably wont be in tomorrow.. or the day after that."

"One of your enemies I take it? You need some help?"

"No, if things go badly then you wont be seeing us ever again. And if you ever do I highly recommend you do not remember me."

Syt shook his head.

"Damn it, let me help! I can fight, if that's what needs doing."

"I have to talk to Anna... you may or may not see me tomorrow, I do not know what will happen. Regardless, thank you for what you have done for us."

"Heh, that's what a friend's for. Hey, is Anna naked? I always wanted to see..."

"Get out!"

"Damn it, take care of yourself, and hopefully it turns good for you and your family."

"If I am here tomorrow your wife will hear about what you just said about mine."

Noishe at that point came charging out of Lloyd's room, teeth bared. A hissed word on Kratos' part made the protozoan skid to a stop and lay down. Syt took one look at the protozoan and swallowed. Though Noishe was on the floor he looked up at Syt teeth bared in a mute snarl.

"Nice doggy, don't kill me, I'm leavin' right now..."

The second Syt was gone Kratos hissed a line in the angelic language. With a yalp Noishe ran to Lloyd's room to stand watch. From thierroom Kratos could hear Anna just beginning to wake up. He wasted a moment cursing in angelic then went to Anna, to break the news that they might have to go on the run yet again.