Me: Weee Look Mommy! SPOILERS!
Mom:Whatever... just remember that you dont own ToS.
The afternoon sun beamed brightly, over an incredibly worn out half-elf. He laid out apon his back atop one of the many large rocks protruding from one of the plains past the line of forest. It was a large, flat, gray rock that laid slanted like a javelin thrown into the earth. Heavy breaths caused the tired man's chest to heave in and out, even hours after his hard work had been done.
A few minutes later he decided to see how Kratos was doing. He propped himself up on his hands and scanned the plain. To his right, off in the distance, he could see the man hiding behind a tall rock, peaking around the corner, panting heavier than himself. He snickered a while, but realized that Kratos had probably been doing that too before they decided to switch, and stopped.
He turned his head some more and saw their 'pray'. It was a pig-like creature, much like the ones he used to chase in Ymir forest when he was much, much younger. Although, instead of an orange coat it was silver like the creature they had met before. The pig was smallish though, only slightly taller due to its longish looking legs. Personally, its gutlooked delicious. And if his mind wasn't set on how incredibly hard it was to catch, he would have been thinking on how to roast it.
The pig-thing walked hesitantly closer to the rock, and if Yuan didn't know any better, he'd think it was enjoying this cat and mouse game. Tensing up, he watched in anticipation as the pig-thing walked practically into Kratos' grasp. Suddenly, he jumped up and pumped his fists. Kratos had tackled their pray and wobbly stood to his feet, holding tightly to his prize.
"YES!" Yuan exclaimed and scrambled down and jogged over to his comrade. He glared at the pig-thing, and it instantly stopped squirming. He straightened up, a huge grin on his face. Kratos mimicked it.
They both began to chuckle slightly, but before they could celebrate fully, the creature vanished into thin air. Kratos' arms crisscrossed clumsily as he blinked and took a step foreward. Yuan's mouth fell open. There was a long moment of silence.
Yuan's neck went limp allowing his head to fall backwards. He stared up and over the tall rock Kratos had been hiding behind and almost felt like punching his stomach when it growled. Suddenly, he saw a sparkle on top of the rock. He squinted his eyes but they soon nearly popped out of his head. He pointed a shaky finger to the pig creature standing on top of it. Kratos twirled around.
There was another long silence. But as the creature vanished once again, Kratos fell to his knees. "Damn that pig to hell, Martel!" he cried, shaking his clenched fists into the hot air. He fell on all fours and began to pant heavily. "You know you want to…" his angry whisper seemed to command Yuan to fall backwards onto the soft, short grass.
Kratos too fell onto the earth, and rolled over onto his back. He closed his eyes. Am I becoming weak? He asked himself. Why is this so tiring? I used to … he took a long breath, I used to hunt nearly everyday… No, it must be this cursed land. He assured himself. Yes, it's the land… it must be. He let out a long sigh. Nearly everything was getting him tired. And frankly, he was amazed Yuan was able to put up with it. He cracked open his eyes and heaved himself into a sitting position. Turning to Yuan he apologized, "I'm sorry I let it escape."
Yuan sighed, "Its alright… You did better than I." Kratos smirked, which made him on the receiving end of one of Yuan's evil glared, which quickly erased his grin.
"You have to agree…" Kratos started after a long silence, a slight smile on his lips once more, "That it was rather comical when you dove into that rock."
Yuan glared harder than usual at Kratos and quickly untied his cloak. "No… it wasn't!" He insisted and rolled his cape into a ball and through it at the human, hitting him square in the face. This would've surprised Yuan, that he didn't dodge or catch it, but he knew that Kratos was tired, after chasing that damn pig for a couple of hours.
The cape slid off of Kratos' face, revealing an evil looking grin. "Yes… it was." He argued back. Yuan groaned angrily and fell back over. Kratos fumbled with the cape in his lap. He sighed and after seemingly much thinking, managed to unhook his sparrow tails from his judgement costume. Glancing over at Yuan to make sure he wasn't looking, (not that it really mattered, Yuan was too tired to do anything anyway) Kratos swung the cloak around his own shoulders. He stood silently and secured it in the front and straightened it out. He smirked as it fell over his shoulders, hiding his arms.
Suddenly, he bent down and picked up his blue and white sparrow tails and folded and hung it over a branch of a small, leafless tree nearby. His tired breathing was gone now so he decided to take a walk around, while waiting for the now sleeping Yuan to wake up.
Kratos sighed and circled the large rock nearby. His gloved hand running over the surprisingly smooth surface. He tried to think about it, but the heat was slowly rising, and his mind was tired. Turning from it and heading towards a forest some yards away his eyes spotted something sparkle. He blinked, then slowly walked towards it. Trees and boulders loomed over him as he passed them by. And longer than he thought it would take, he arrived at his destination.
"Mmmhuuhh…" Yuan rolled onto his side in his much desired sleep, but was rudely awakened by a squirming in his side and hot air on his arm. He froze, and slowly opened an eye. "K-Kratos?" he asked slightly scared.
His eyes grew the size of dinner plates as the pig-like creature snorted and barried its face deeper in the crevice of Yuan's elbow.
"Hmm." Bright lights shone off the watery surface, causing Kratos to squint. Before him laid what seemed to be a spring, which he had been staring at for some time.A slight steam could be seen against the dark rocks on the opposite side. It was in a slight indent of a small clearing in the forest. And soft grass choked the water to its edge wherever the rocks weren't.
He absent mindedly combed a hand through his spiky hair. He froze, half way, a look of slight disgust on his face. His hair was dirtier than usual. No wonder it felt so heavy and was sagging down more than he remembered it should. He thought, pushing some hair behind his ear.
"Hmm…" If I desire this much for a shower… Yuan is probably dieing for one by now… "Yuan. Hmph." He mentally cursed at himself for leaving Yuan alone for … he thought for a while. "An hour?"
Kratos turned abruptly and nearly jumped a foot as his new cape snapped behind him noisily.
About ten-fifteen minutes later Kratos returned to Yuan tossing a small clutter of twigs into a small clear area near to where he left him. He raised an eyebrow. "What's this now?"
Yuan knelt down and tried to cast a fire spell to start a flame in the wood, but ended up with only a few sparks. He grunted, and not even glancing at the human responded, "Do you know how to start a fire?"
"Yes… Why do you wish for a fire?" he asked and his hand grabbed at the bare branch of the tree he had left his cloak on earlier. Kratos doubleglanced at were his piece of clothing should be.
"I…" he put emphasis on the single syllable and paused for affect, "-Caught the food." His back straightened and seemed quiet proud of the fact that he had caught it as it slept.
"That's nice – W-wait what?" Kratos looked over at Yuan with interest now.
"I said," the half-elf looked over at the human, "I caught the pig. But I'm sorry to say I cant get my fire mana to… wait… You took my cape?" he pointed lazily and in disbelief at Kratos.
"Erm…" both men blinked. And feeling much like Lloyd, and looking like him too, Kratos scratched the back of his head, a small guilty smile on his face. "It looks like it."
Yuan's eyes went flat. "…"
"…" Kratos shifted uneasily. Did Yuan take my clothing too? Probably not. Doesnt sound like Yuan...
"… Well whatever. Can you make a fire?" Yuan looked annoyed and turned to the pig, that was lying dead on the other side of him. He grabbed it and held it up for Kratos to see.
Kratos raised an eyebrow and there was a long silence. Finally he removed the cape and almost hung it on the branch, but decided against it halfway and turned and set it down next to him as he worked on the fire – Yuan watching intently, holding the dead beast in his arms.
Yuan sighed merrily and laid back, relaxing, against a rock that conveniently was shaped like the back of a chair. Kratos closed his eyes, smiling slightly, and quietly sat cross-legged on the soft grass. Embers burned dimly in the dieing light of the day, on top of them was stacked animal bones, picked clean.
After a long peaceful silence Kratos finally brought himself to his feat. Yuan cracked a curious eye at him. "We should head back to the city, while we still have some light to guide us."
Yuan nodded, stifling a yawn. He stumbled to his feet, kicked some dirt onto the fiery ashes and then followed Kratos back to the dull city walls, through the dark allies and into the boring room they had been in the night before.
After Kratos finally agreed to remove his sword before he slept so not to make that annoying scratching sound all night long, Yuan looked around, then behind himself and seemingly scanned the whole room.
"Is something the matter, Yuan?" Kratos asked simply.
"Yea…" He replied slowly, "Have you seen my cape?"