A/N: More Tales mythology attempts, but I think the title says all. The name of the story is also (kind of) explained in this chapter.

Stories2

Syt laughed at him, he laughed long and hard, and much to his chagrin Lloyd also laughed. Hands that were masterful with any blade could not find a decent grip on the pole. The line, it tangled behind his back, tangled when his guard was down, and he spent half his time unwinding the impossible knots. As for bait, Kratos was using corn. He absolutely refused to touch the worms. Lloyd took one look at the worms and he too put a piece of corn on his hook. Syt was nice enough to not tease Lloyd about it. Kratos though might have just as well painted a target on himself. Kratos grumbled at the fish; who were proving to be a little too intelligent, and kept refusing his bait. Lloyd was having only a little more luck then his father. The one time he managed to get a bite he lost the pole, it flew from his hands, and skittered across the bank. Lloyd then said a word that Kvar must have taught him and chassed after the pole. He tripped, fell into the slush covered ground, and Kratos picked Lloyd up and held his son close until Lloyd said he was warm again. For the rest of the outing Lloyd sat by his father, watching the line with fierce concentration, as if he was going to will a fish to take his father's bait. And perhaps it worked, for Kratos did get a bite near the end of their little outing. Lloyd hopped up, tried to help his father pull it in, and yet another pole was lost…

"Wow." Lloyd gasped as the pole drifted out into the miniature lake.

"Indeed."

"Martel blast me away!" Syt pointed to a ripple, and for one second a blue green tail broke the surface of the water. "It's huge!" He then hoped up and down in joy. "It's the big one, the monster of the lake, an' I found him I did!"

"You found him?" Kratos protested.

"Aye, that I did! An' now I know where he is I'll be comin' here every evenin' don't you doubt!"

"Issia's going to kill me." Kratos noted to his son, Syt just continued to stare at the water with longing.

"Corn… need to be bringing some corn next time." The chant almost sounded religious.

"I thought corn was the inferior bait among fisherman."

"It ain't now!"

"Really?" Kratos raised an eyebrow and swallowed the rest of his sarcastic response. Lloyd was using a small hand to tug on his father's fur coat. The seraphim looked down at his child, all he could really see around the fur trimmed hood was those dark black brown eyes. "Hmm, what is wrong Lloyd?"

"Tummy rumbling." As if to agree Lloyd's stomach made a rather loud noise to indicate it was empty.

"Aye, sorry lad, we don't got any fish form the pond so we wont be eaten fish tonight. But we do have some mighty fine bread and all."

"Bread, yum!"

"That's the spirit lad!" Syt ruffled Lloyd's hair, or rather ruffled the boy's hood. "Aye, so which one of us be cookin'?"

"Making a sandwich does not qualify as cooking."

"Good, then I'll be cookin' you go make them sandwiches then, since it's not cookin' and all."

"You called me sly?"

"Aye I did, you are, ol' Syt's just slyer."

Lloyd laughed at his father's expression. Kratos was both blushing and smiling, he knew he had been had, but somehow it didn't bother him as much as it should. He shielded his face with a hand, growled under his breath, then went through their packs to find what they needed to eat. Lloyd waddled after him, deciding to help as much as he could. Kratos sat in the slush, Lloyd sat in his lap, moving pieces of meat and cheese while Kratos handled a knife and spread the spicy mustard and the like on each slab each slice of bread. While he took a moment to drag the food packs over to him, to put away the knife, a piece of bread went missing. He did a quick count of the slices, than whipped around to glare at Noishe. The protozoan looked innocent enough. There were no mustard smears on his snout. Baffled Kratos looked to Lloyd, his boy only smiled, and there wasn't a crumb, a smear, on his face.

"Huh,"

He wondered, mulled on it, then pulled out another piece of bread and retrieved the knife and mustard. Bored Lloyd squirmed in his lap, and the Seraphim relented and let his boy leave him for a bit. Lloyd called out to Noishe, Noshy responded to the call with a bark. They frolicked in the soon to be gone snow, and the Seraphim was so immersed in his little mystery he missed it when Lloyd pulled a piece of bread out from his pocket and gave it to the protozoan. Sandwiches done Kratos whistled, Nosihe picked Lloyd up by the scruff of his coat, and carried the still energetic boy back to his father. Syt stopped watching the water, muttering about corn, and joined them. They ate, Noishe lingered by Lloyd, and more then happily ate the crusts that the boy picked off of his bread. After their meal they all decided to call it an afternoon, and head back to the inn.

The reception was not pretty, well that's how the saying went anyways. He disagreed with who ever made that statement, after all Anna was a beautiful woman. It would have been more accurate to say the reception was not pleasant. Issia saw them enter the small common room, she sat behind a counter talking to one of the customers. The glare she shot them made both men, and protozoan, freeze in the door way. It was so venomous that the customer looked over his sholder to see what had walked in.

"Erm… I'll leave you alone with 'em Iss."

"No need Sir. Gentleman, Anna is waiting for you upstairs. She wants to have a very long chat with both of you."

"Aye, I be seein' my life flash before my eyes." Syt whispered as they exited the common room and went up the stairs. "Could we just, I dunno sit tight so I can get through the really good times before Anna kills us."

Noishe whined, as if to say. Could I do that too?

"Do not be worried Syt, Anna would not literally kill us."

"Aye, but I be likin' being a man! Yon Anna might change that for me."

"I will protect you, the worst she will do is yell at us Syt, and I still think I can talk her out of her mood."

"You're crazy."

"Who was singing about corn and fish earlier?"

"I was not!"

They made it up to the top of the stairs. It was the fifth door down to Anna's room.

"Were too,"

"Was not!"

"Were-"

"Kratos, Syt, come in here right now!"

They entered the room. Kratos felt his heart twist inside of him. Anna was dressed for a war against man kind, or rather men kind. Her red dress gleamed in the candle light, and what little of the sun's light that made it through the window set the beads of her dress to flicker. Anna had taken several pains to curl her normally straight hair; it slid down her shoulders in waves of cinnamon with fire highlights. Syt physically stopped breathing, just stared at Anna in awe. He'd probably never seen a woman dressed like this in his life. All Kratos knew was that the fisher folk were not wealthy, and what colors he had seen on women in his years visit to Izoold were gowns of brown or grey. All of the garments for all genders were made out of dyed wool. The only other color that was ever seen was white, and white was only for weddings and the religious ceremonies of Martel. The color suited Anna, both her current mood and overall temperament. She looked at them from where she sat on the corner of the bed, then saw Lloyd on Noishe's back and she softened just a little bit.
"Noishe, you aren't in trouble. Please take Lloyd to his room and keep him company for a bit."

Noishe barked, wagged his tail, and if he could have talked he probably would have gloated on his way out. His self satisfied yips were enough, Noishe really didn't need to talk for Kratos to put it all together. A certain four legged someone, the seraphim decided, needed a bath. It would be fitting, after all Noishe hated baths. Maybe Syt would help him out, the fisherman's glare at the protozoan told Kratos that the man would be more then happy to help when the time came.

"There are chairs, both of you, sit."

Meekly the men did as ordered.

"Where were you?" Her tone was sweet, deceptively so, and neither man was stupid enough to miss the fires that burned in her eyes.

"Ahh…" Syt looked to Kratos. "You explain; you're the smarter of us."

"No, slyness before wisdom I insist."

Painted finger nails tapped against the small night stand. Anna glared at both men, and the tapping went a little faster.

"Damn it Kratos, why me? Aye Mrs. Anna we went fishing an' well Martel strike me blind if we didn't lose track of the time…"

"Kratos… Are you actually going to try to back him up?" Anna's gaze told him that he better damned well not back Syt up.

"No, I made a promise to Lloyd, I kept it, that is all."

"Good going Kratos!" Syt hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"I'm right here you know." Anna snapped, Syt flinched at the anger in her voice. "And I remember what you said, and I said no."

"No, what you said was that we would talk about it. You were asleep when the issue came up, so I dealt with it myself."

Anna's eyes narrowed into slits. It might have been his imagination but for a second he could have sworn they turned red. Kratos had gambled, he knew how much Anna hated being corrected. Though his face and manner were calm he could feel moisture under his gloves.

"You could have woken me up."

"You haven't been sleeping well these last few days." Kratos countered. "You needed your sleep more then we needed that talk."

"That." She hissed. "Is what you think."

"Life flashin' before your eyes now Ruian?"

"Syt, shut up!"

"Issia gave me some rather direct instructions on how to handle you Mr. Syt. I think I'll give you her little talk for her as we agreed, then myself and Kratos will have a nice chat in private. Where I can be very very direct."

Kratos swallowed, and he'd be damned if parts of his life weren't flashing before his eyes. Syt then proceeded to get his verbal lashing. Anna never once raised her voice, as a matter of fact half of the talk was delivered at a whisper. Syt flinched, cringed, writhed, and looked absolutely miserable through it all. When Anna let him go he slinked out of the room, and if he had a tail it would have been between his legs. Then she turned on him, anger and hurt still boiling in her eyes.

"Anna, I made a promise to Lloyd, I could not break it."

"I know that." She hissed. "I am still very angry though, let's pursue why I'm angry, then move on from there shall we?"

Xxx xxx xxx

Lloyd scampered around the room totally oblivious to the air of embarrassment his sire and god-
father were radiating. Anna had banished them from the rooms of their spouses for a week as punishment. No other rooms available they were now both with Lloyd for the night. Lloyd was so excited to have them with him he was not going to sleep at his normal time, yet another wonderful thing that Anna was going to blame on them. Noishe whimpered, his ears were slicked to his skull. He was suffering from pains in his belly, add Lloyd's loudness to the whole situation and it was easy to say Noishe was just suffering all around.

"I haven't been away from Issia in a mighty long time Ruian."

"If you go out to that pond every night you best get used to it."

"Maybe once or twice a week would be better."

"That is between you and her, do not even think to drag me into it."

"But you might be able to help-"

"No, leave me out of it."

"But-"

"Syt, enough"
"Couldn't you just try to settle Lloyd down for the night, so I can sleep if nothin' else."

"As I recall you are the one who put sugar in his medicine, I do not need to sleep so I am not going to suffer from this. As a mater of fact…" Kratos' eyes softened a bit. "I do not mind watching him play at all."

"Da-"

"Don't even finish that word." Syt wisely fell silent under Kratos' glare. "Lay down, close your eyes, you'll pass out eventually."

"You're a bundle of comfort and warmth tonight."

"You are not the only one missing his bed."

"And Anna, you be missin' her I bet?" Syt snickered, as Kratos' glare grew fiercer the fisherman lost his courage. "I'm thinkin' I should be layin' down now…" "Do that." Kratos' voice dipped down to a growl, it wasn't all that different from Anna's when she had been giving the fisherman a verbal lashing. "Daddy can we go fishin' tomorrow?" "I…" Kratos sighed as his son gave him puppy eyes. "…will talk to your mother about it…" "Ruian, you're a glutton for punishment, you know that?" "Go to sleep Syt, or I will make you." "Heh," Syt curled up with his blankets, and as Lloyd decided his grouchy "unca" needed a hug, he sighed. "If your Moma says no lad I'll talk to Issia about it." "Who now is a glutton for punishment?" Kratos taunted, he leaned against the wall dark eyes glittering with amusement. "I don't know what you're talkin' about Ruian." "Of course not," Kratos smirked at nothing it seemed. "Come on Lloyd, I think I can recall another story right now." "Yah! A story! Can you tell me the story about the big bush?" "The giant Karlan Tree?" "Bush!" "No Lloyd, it was a tree…" "Bush!" Lloyd crossed his arms in front of his chest, a stubborn look on his face. "Do you want to hear the story or not?" Kratos also crossed his arms in front of his chest, and met his boy's eyes. "Bush sounds better!" "Perhaps, but it was a tree. Was not it Noishe?" The protozoan barked, than nodded his head. "If Noshy says it's a tree…" Lloyd sighed, he hated giving up on anything. "Do not be so stubborn Lloyd, calling it a bush would demean it, that is why it is a tree." "Demean?" "Make fun of." "Oh," "The Kharlan Tree is special; it is the source of all mana in the whole world. When it was first planted, in the very beginnings of time, great and wonderful things happened. Noishe was actually born when the tree was planted." Lloyd's face crinkled up in confusion. "Sometimes things that seem young can be in fact very very old." "Like Noshy?" "Yes. Like Noishe." "Noshy!" "Lloyd…" "Sorry, I stop being bad." "Good, now where was I?" "Noshy born under the tree…" "Ah yes, thank you, now Noishe was born under the tree a very long time ago…" Syt watched in awe as Lloyd drifted off with a happy smile on his face. The fisherman's mind was buzzing from all that Kratos had told his boy, of the Protozoan, the Elves, and the old world. Syt stared at nothing for a bit. He didn't watch as Kratos picked Lloyd up, placed Lloyd on his small bed, and tuck him in. Having done it often enough with his boys Syt knew how long it generally took to do so. When he guessed Kratos was done he rolled over, so he was facing the dark wall that the Seraphim was leaning against. "All that true?" "I never lie to my family Syt." "Is it safe, you tellin' him all that?" "If he told anyone they would think him strange, yes, but I don't think anyone would take him seriously… and he needs to know the truth before he hears all the lies." "The lies?" "The church will lie to him Syt, they will try to poison him. If he knows the truth, they wont be able to touch him." "What is Noishe?" Syt suddenly snapped, he looked to the wolf thing and saw much to his discomfort that it was looking back. It wasn't the same look a dog would give you, that I love you and I'm dumb look. It was a mix of that I know more then you do look animals gave you, plus something that was strangely human.

"Were not you paying attention?" Kratos asked, a slight smile curling his lips. In the dark room it was hard to see it, but Syt knew it was there.

"He's a protozoan, you called him that, but what is a protozoan?"

"I don't know." Kratos looked to Noishe, the "dog" wagged his tail and it seemed a smile was on his lips. "Evolution personified is the best definition I have come up with. He changes, every time the world is to change he changes. That is what an Elf sorcerer once told me. He has been in this form for less then six years, so I imagine something major is going to happen."

"This form?"

"Does it disturb you so much?" Kratos closed his eyes, tilted his head to the ceiling. "When I first met Noishe he was in an egg. Fell out of a tree actually, or was about ready to. I rode ahead, caught him before he fell on the ground. I actually thought I was holding a emerald, the shell was a translucent green, not too unlike the gem stone. Martel, she was so sad, so worried because Mithos was ill. I gave her the gem in an attempt to cheer her up, and the second she touched the gem this one…" Kratos pointed to Noishe. "decided to hatch." "Hatch?" Syt was just staring at Noishe as if he'd never seen him before. Noishe met the gaze, then closed one eye in a wink.

"He hatched from an egg, just like a chicken?"

"Yes, and he looked so much like one that Yuan decided we should keep him, fatten him up, and have him when our rations ran thin."

Noishe growled, his hackles flared out behind him.

"It was four thousand, sixty eight years ago, and you still have not forgiven him I see."

Syt's eyes were glazing. Kratos laughed quietly, so not to wake Lloyd.

"It's scary how you sometimes just throw that number out like it's nothin'."

"Is it not? Yet it is everything Syt. Time is everything to me, I have eternity and yet I have so little in that eternity to hold onto. One day," Kratos sighed. "One day in twenty, thirty, maybe forty years you will be dead. What is that compared to four thousand years? Nothing, maybe a moment, but in the larger scheme it is nothing really. In one way I am lucky, I never forget, I am incapable of forgetting anything no mater how small, so what memories I have of you will not die in time... But in the same way I am cursed, because I can never forget, even what I wish to. Time is a double edged sword for me my friend, and I can see you don't fully understand from your glazed eyes…"

"Does Anna understand?"

"Yes, she does."

"She's mighty sharp if she can, my head just hurts tryin' to imagine it all, what it's like."

"She sees the world differently then most people."

"I reckon she does." Syt swallowed, than looked at the Seraphim. "We're simple folk next to you Ruian, me an Issia we're simple as simple gets aren't we?"

"Hardly," Kratos looked to Noishe. "You can take this; so many others would have broke by now. You lost your lively hood, some of your family, your very way of life, my friend; you now must endure the weight that would destroy the minds of even the most enlightened scholars."

"No weight, we're friends and all that, it ain't a weight."

"And that is what makes you different. Any other man would have called it a weight; and I would have agreed. If we see the world one way Syt you see it in another. In a much clearer way then I ever could." There was a long pause. Syt knew he was blushing; Kratos wasn't the one to praise anyone. At least that's how it seemed to the fisher man. Kratos was staring at him, reading him with those brown black eyes.

"Them protozoan, why aint there more of them around, I mean I never seen any more of 'em but this one here…"

"For all I know Noishe is the last of his kind, if the great Kharlan Tree ever is brought back into this world more may be born. But so long as it remains as a seed no more protozoan will come into this world… Even." Kratos coughed. "Even if Noshie were to find a mate…" Noishe whined, and Syt could have sworn that Noishe's cheeks were darker.

"How old is he?"

"Older then I care to think about. As I understand it a protozoan goes through several evolutions in its life time, fish, bird, wolf… Those are the forms recorded, for all we know there is more."

"That the whole of it, some book really say fish, bird, wolf…"

"No, you do not really want to hear the full of it do you?"

"Aye, I might be wantin' to awake as I am and all that."

"I can not believe you want a bed time story as well…"

"Please Daddy." Syt widened his eyes and tried to match Lloyd's pitch, the seraphim glared at Syt, then sighed.

"Why me?"

"Keeps you young."

"I do not need to stay young."

"Heh, that's Martel's own truth."

"Do you want to know or not?"

"Sure!"

"Alright, the original text I discovered on the protozoan was in a place once called Lathorian, there was a great city there, and the elvish city was lost to the wars. The passage from that book went;

From the tangled heart of the heart of all shall form great potential. From this raw potential shall the plague of chaos rear it's head and smite down life, for hear me well potential is life in it's infancy. From that point hence death and life begin their war in the hearts of all that exist in the whole world. From this good and evil once cleanly divided and once solely potential mingle and mix. With chaos and life they slid into the great heart of all, as the heart strives to absorb all and take it back to infancy. But hear me the heart be not great enough, once unleashed and tainted potential became infinity, and pressed against the boundaries of the finite of good and evil which bind this world together there was no place for it. So did Origin, to save the heart of all, wielded in one hand the hammer of the gods, in the other the clay of the world, and from Hammer and Clay, in the heart of the great Forge, he wrought for the beginnings of life, of ever changing life. First observed was it to be little more then fish, they played in the seas for the worlds land itself was a small shrunken thing. Ash choked the skies, lightening gouged the earth, chaos was dominant and deadly. But the seas were safe, and so there they stayed. Then the sky's once filled with poison, they did clean, the pools of the world grew tainted. So from watery haven to starry heaven the protozoan flew, they were for this time one with heaven, with sky, and pressed themselves against the very cage of the world and saw the chaos recede and with its recession did the world of men, elf, and those in between come into being…"