Homocidal Snowbunnies: Working on it... I'm rather busy though...

Vocalsama: Funny... sheesh talk about a cruel sense of humor...If you like the bonding in this fic you might like what I do in Shards of Regeneration (the sequal) to Double Edged Sword.

ArchNavy: Yeah Lloyd is rather absentminded kind of like m- umm what was I talking about? Seriously though I think Lloyd takes after Anna or maybe it was Dirk's cooking or Raine's continuous blows to his head that made Lloyd's mental compassity so tiny lol.

Heiisbabysammy: (sorry if I got your pen name wrong) Thanks!

MoonCanon: Feels different huh? I never really noticed that.

FairyV: Lloyd and Kratos honesty is something that occures not only in this fic but in the game. It's a theme that I foundfacinating because though Kratos lies a little to the othershe never directly lies to Lloyd and guilds him. I figure I should continue, or rather establish it in this fic becuase it's the begnining of everything else game/fic wise... Doest that make any sense? Bleh sleep deprivation's making mywriting all nutty.

A/N: Can someone give me the proper spelling for the "reihards" and for the snow city "Falinor" I need these so I can edit this chapter (and the others which may hold miss-spellings) I need this because due to my up coming college classes I'm not going to have any time to play TOS. As a matter of fact I am now trying to write/transfer this and write an outline for psychology simultaneously.

To Falinor

Chapter 36

They had to tell him, they had to show him, there had been no other way. They flew on the "metal birdies" over Triet at night. Lloyd gasped as the world slid underneath him, tried to lean over to get a better look. Kratos would free up a hand at that point and pull him back before he toppled to his death. Anna was pale, clung to him with an iron grip. She closed her eyes, she moaned and whimpered. Kratos tried to comfort her, told her he was very skilled at flying, he knew what he was doing, and if by chance she fell he was more then capable of saving her. Through pale lips she told him to shut up and get this over with. Lloyd was oblivious to it all, just cheerfully pointed out Triet and anything else that caught his attention. Anna leaned into his back, Lloyd sat content in his lap. His son watched in fascination as Kratos worked the Reihard's controls. So as they flew Kratos found himself giving Lloyd instructions on how to work the ship. It seemed he was always doing that, it also seemed that Lloyd did not mind, which made it a good arrangement for all involved.

Well except Anna, who kept quietly begging him to hurry up.

Lazily the Reihard glided over Yuan's fortress, in front of them, hanging in air was a ripple of mana. Kratos firmly held Lloyd down, then lifted his right hand to the heavens. His ex-sphere flashed with silver blue light, and the ripple that was only visible to his eyes began to glow. Lloyd gasped in awe, Anna scrunched up her eyes then began to pray quietly, she knew what was coming. Kratos slammed down his left foot, and the Reihard surged forward, towards the swirling sky. Anna shrieked, held onto him for dear life, Lloyd whooped, there was a flash of light, a wrench in the pit of his stomach. Under Anna's fingernails he could feel his blood seeping out.

"Anna we are through, you can let go now..." Anna only whimpered in terror, refused to open her eyes. "Anna, you are hurting me." The grip shifted a bit, and he had ten new spots that began to ache.

"Daddy, let's do that again!"

"Some other time perhaps..." He hissed in pain. "Without your mother if we can arrange it..."

"Just shut up and land!" Anna wailed, she was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"Anna we are over an ocean, landing here would be stupidity in the greatest sense."

"Don't lecture, just land!"
"Yes dear..."

Lloyd giggled, leaned forward to catch something as it drifted by. He leaned a little too far for the Seraphim's liking, and Kratos freed up a hand to restrain his son. Brave, or rather too young to be frightened, his son strained against his father's grip, and snatched at something in the air. Holding it close, Lloyd allowed himself to be reeled back in. Still holding whatever it was in one hand, pressed against his chest, Lloyd used his free hand to point to the large mass of ice and snow up ahead.

"Daddy, what's that?"

"A continent Lloyd, it has no name."

"Oh, it's big."

"I guess it is a bit big." The seraphim agreed, steering them towards it, as they came closer Lloyd's eyes grew wider.

"It's really really big!"

"Do not worry, it does not bite."

"I swear Kratos, if we don't land in the next few minuets..."

"Daddy, why's mommy acting all funny?"

"She does not like flying I guess."

"Stop making fun of me and land already!"

"In a moment."

Kratos sighed, he wanted to fly them up to the city's gate, but Anna would not allow that, he went as far as he felt he could get away with, then landed. Like most of the northern continent the area they landed in was flat, barren. Snow swirled around them, it was night, the stars gleamed with a ferocity only seen this far north on a moonless night. Lloyd shivered, now he probably saw the reason why Daddy had insisted he wear his heavy clothes and fur coat. Noishe seeing them fly in howled, ran up to them. Or rather he tried, his footing was bad in the snow and ice so he fell a great deal. This was the second time in one night he had made the trip, his first companion to ride with him had been almost as bad as Anna. Well at least Anna wasn't armed with razor sharp teeth. Her nails were bad enough.

Muttering prayers to Martel Anna hopped out of the Riehard, and tried her best to hug the ground... She wasn't doing so good a job on that and all she really managed to do was hug the snow. Kratos snorted, then picked Lloyd up and gently un-pried him from the Riehard. Lloyd took advantage of the situation to hug his father, or rather try to get his arms around his father's mid section. He had no luck there. The many layers of garments he wore made Kratos even thicker then before, and Lloyd's own mobility was restricted due to the fur coat he wore. Still he tried, and Kratos chuckled and patted his son's head.

"Come on, let us get going. We have a long walk after all." Anna glared at him, he ignored the glare and muttered a phrase in the angelic tongue. The Riehard shimmered, then shrunk down to the size of a child's toy. The seraphim bent down, picked up the ship before Lloyd could go for it, and put it in it's special box. That box then went in the bottom of Kratos' personal packs, a place where Lloyd knew very well to keep his hands out of. When he turned back to Anna she was shivering, she jerked her head towards Falinor and the Seraphim nodded. They walked like always, very close together, almost touching. The world was white, the starlight seemed magnified a thousand times, the banks around them were highlighted with silver blue.

Lloyd gapped at the Aura lights, and while they walked Kratos told him a story of how they came to be. It was one of his "tall tales", Anna's words not his own, and both his wife and son seemed to fall into a trance while he described how in the Aura's all the colors of the day time and sunset dwelled. When he wound up his story they were close to Falinor, probably three miles at most, and Lloyd, despite being up well past his bedtime was wide awake. At the end of Kratos' story, and the end of Lloyd's thousand and one questions that always came out after a story, there ended the peace of the moment. And it was not some monster that caused the peace to end, rather restlessness.

Lloyd kept wandering off, much to Kratos' worry. He'd scamper behind drifts, run ahead, or lag behind. Noishe whined, tried to keep pace with Lloyd, to herd him back to his parents. Well he did at first. A few snowballs later the protozoan made a kind of grunt-whine, as if to say, you watch him this time, then ran to Falinor leaving them all behind.

"Lloyd!" Anna yelled, as he yet again disappeared from their sight. Anna then cried out as Lloyd nailed her with a snowball. "Where did you learn to do that!"

Kratos mentally scolded himself on telling Lloyd how much he liked having snow fights when he was a young man, it seemed as if he was going to have to watch what he said. He ducked a lumpy missile, Lloyd was going a bit to far here, he needed to be reined in... The next snowball got him right in the face, with a grunt he wiped off the attack. Another one connected, it was quite a bit larger then the first, and the force it was thrown at made him stagger. Anna it seemed was going to side with Lloyd on this one. Perhaps sensing his mood she had decided that her Derris Fa Gathsuun needed to lighten up a bit. As she threw another snowball the Seraphim dodged, ducked behind a drift, and winced as he heard the snowballs pelt into his make shift fort.

"This is unfair you know!" The seraphim yelled from his sanctuary. "Two against one is not even odds!"

"We know that dear!" Anna called back, "but I don't think Lloyd or I care all that much!"

"Great..." He considered the odds of winning this fight, considered retreat, then decided he'd go along with their game. If it made them happy he'd be a target. Making a few weapons of his own he waited until the attacks died down.
"Kratos, are you just going to hide back there for-?" Anna sounded a bit annoyed but was cut off from her husbands counter attack. As Anna returned fire he ducked behind his sanctuary. Kratos could hear Lloyd laughing, then Anna shrieked then she too burst out laughing. "Who's side are you on Lloyd!"

"Daddy's!"

"Being a double crosser isn't a good thing Lloyd. Grr! I see a snow drift with your name on it!"

"Help, Daddy help me!"

Kratos lifted his head from behind the sanctuary, laughed as Anna picked Lloyd up and carried him to a large snow drift. Lloyd squealed as he was dumped on the drift, then taking advantage of the situation he managed to throw a few fistfuls at his mother. Anna drew a hand over her face, staggered back, and winced as she was nailed from behind. Then it was her turn to hide, to scramble for cover, and listen to the men's taunts. She was more then a match for them though. Lloyd and Kratos' both had poor aiming skills, Anna on the other hand hit almost every time. Only when Anna's teeth chattered, and Lloyd's bottomless energy ran low did they stop, leaving a clearing filled with churned up snow. The echoes of their laughter hung in the air, their joy seemed to linger long after they were gone.