To my readers,
(Gets on knees) Whoever wrote "row row row your boat"… Forgive me! Fluff chapter with little point save to get them to the geyser. You have been warned.
PS all reviews on bottom, sorry if I didn't get all the e-mails out for last chapter, been busy!
Kasan Soulblade
Hmmm washtubs…
Chapter 17
A week, a in which Genis limped around, Colette mostly slept, as did Lloyd. Raine ran from room to room a demon possessed, for the first three days. After that, when everyone seemed more or less healed decided to fall into a near hibernation state. It was on the second to last day that anyone was feeling remotely like themselves. Genis and Lloyd sat in the empty common room playing a game of skip hop laid out in front of them, cards fanned out in front of their faces a few trinkets scattered across the board with the pieces.
"OK I call and raise you… two metal beads."
Lloyd stared at his cards, cursed, and considered his remaining loot. He needed those red beads for his project but he needed the metal ones maybe if he tossed in four slips of purple fabric…
Colette skipped down the stairs. They knew it was her because when the footsteps came to the bottom of the stairs where there lay a throw rug there was a loud thump.
"You OK Colette!" Lloyd called, putting his cards down and getting up.
The second he was gone Genis moved to take a peak at Lloyd's cards, a green paw smashed down on his hand and he had the dubious pleasure of staring into the mouth of Lloyd's green dog.
"Alright alright…I won't cheat!" Genis hissed, trying to free his arm. He could hear Lloyd coming back and panicked. "I'll make beef stew for lunch and give you half my bowl!"
Noishe snarled.
"The whole bowl, just get off!"
Tail wagging Noishe let his arm go, winked at him then padded off to the abandoned kitchen.
"My turn right." Lloyd asked, sliding into his seat, Colette taking the chair besides him.
"Yep," Genis grinned weakly, rubbed his arm.
Lloyd tossed some purple fabric into his pile –bits of Kratos' ruined cape from the Fire temple-, scooted it forward.
"Call?"
"Call."
Genis skunked Lloyd as he had the last three games, chuckling he scooted the loot over.
"I don't know what makes it worse," Lloyd tossed his hand in. "The fact that you beat me three times now, the fact that your twelve and beat me three times now or the fact that every time I've ever played you you beat me."
"Oh hi Noshy!" Colette chirped, waving to the dog that used his tail to wag back.
Genis turned, in those jaws was the handle of a pot, the pot dangled loosely from the light grip those teeth exerted.
"So…" Genis sighed, "Who wants beef stew for lunch?"
"Bark!"
"Noshy does!" Colette chirped.
"Yeah…." Genis sighed, wondered how a dog was smart enough to effectively black mail him into cooking. "Looks like it huh?"
Xxxx
"Genis, Colette, and I, will be gone for the day." Raine informed him. "We are going to the university to conduct research."
"I take it Lloyd won't be coming?" Kratos shifted about on the bed, looked up from polishing his shield in his lap.
"He started screaming when Raine said we were going to the university." Genis snickered. "I think he was gunna jump out the window or something if Raine tried to drag him along.
"Don't exaggerate young man!" Raine smacked her brother and Kratos winced, that sound was a little hard on the ears, no matter how many times he heard it. "Regardless we felt we should tell you where we are headed so you don't worry about Colette."
"Thank you. With your brother and yourself going in the daylight hours in this city though I find little need for me to come along." Kratos said smoothly, looking down at his work. He was almost done.
"So you aren't coming Mr. Kratos?" Colette sighed.
"No, I am not."
"You'll be sparing with Lloyd then?"
"Perhaps," Kratos closed his eyes, went back to his work. He knew the lay of this shield as well as his own hands. Despite constantly –well it felt constantly- swapping his gear and knowing that that was going to happen several more times he always took some pains to get to know the tools of his trade.
Raine disappointment at Lloyd's continued choice to seek his company over that of his older friends seemed to fill the room. She probably pinned it to the fact that he was human. Little did she guess the pure repugnance the idea of a room stuffed with books brought to Lloyd, he knew, knew that if he told the young man that they were going to strip and run by wolves den with sausages tied around them the younger swordsman would have picked that over going to the library with no qualms.
Raine grumbled and sighed. She knew that there was no way that she was going to persuade Lloyd to go to them to the library, to the university, and what hopes she had harbored of making him try to spark the young man's intellectual curiosity were dashed.
"There are more ways to split a knotted hair then with an axe Ms. Sage." Kratos said, not bothering to look up from his task. "That is what the university is to him, an axe, and like most wise people he avoids it."
Raine was staring at him, he felt her gaze that was part accusation, part distrust.
"With some nudges, a few suggestions, and not dragging him by the hair to places of learning, he might actually develop some interest intellectually on his own. Some people must grow into their hunger for more intelligence, some are born into it, and others must pick it up."
Raine's stare was a little less hostile.
"There are other tools besides an axe." Kratos pulled his sword from its sheath, slid a hand over the steel that was almost a caress. "Other more elegant means to accomplish the ends we both desire."
There is was what she wanted and needed to hear. Her failure to teach Lloyd was a gnawing frustration with her, the fact that he was aiming at the same goal she was... One brick in the wall of mutual distrust and dislike between them both seemed to fall away.
"We'll be back by nightfall at the latest." Raine said, turned and was on her way out.
"Did… something just happen?" Genis muttered to Colette both pupils trailing after the elder elf.
"Kratos and Raine are just trying to be friends." Colette explained with a smile. "It's there way of saying "hi"."
Genis gave Colette a long hard look, the kind of look Raine would give Lloyd when Lloyd really messed up on a question. "I don't know Colette… that just seems a little far fetched."
"You'll see!" the blonde Chosen was not one to be phased by glaring inconsistencies in her intuition and the events going on around her. "They'll be friends in the end."
She didn't know it but Raine and Kratos had heard every word. Raine rolled her eyes, muttered something about the world ending first, Genis said something about pigs flying first, and Kratos muttered something about fish flying first.
xxx
"Sword practice!" Lloyd chirped, startled that Kratos had brought it up, normally Lloyd had to badger and whine but Kratos came to him interested in training. "Sure, hold on!"
Lloyd rolled out of the bed he'd been lounging in, not at all phased that he had fallen off the bed the young man searched under the bed and fished out his new swords. Kratos had bought him another set, they were lighter slender needle like blades the man had called the rapier. Lloyd had a few other names or them, 'lame' being one of them. He like the thicker broader blades but Kratos had stubbornly over ruled him. Lloyd favored the stabbing style, the in and out runs of darting about swiping and thrusting with his blade, so Kratos had catered to the Iselian's current style.
"There awful skinny." Lloyd grumbled, setting the sheaths to their proper hooks on his belt and winding the leather in either side of the sheathes so they were even more secure.
"They suit your current mode of fighting."
"Un huh…" Lloyd made a face, not believing, Kratos smiled indulgently, like a parent explaining something that should have been obvious to a kid. As they walked out of the inn he again went over his reasoning and reassurances.
"When you grow out of that type of fighting I'll get you a proper set of blades to match. You don't have the defense offered by a shield. You don't have the skill to use your blades as a shield. So these," Kratos tapped the blades with his own. "Are your weapons and these," Kratos tapped Lloyd's foot. "Are your shield."
"So you mean like if a Desian cut my boot in a fight the smell will…"
Kratos snorted.
"A dangerous weapon that. We'd all drop dead with them."
"Oh shut up!"
"I mean running, dodging, pick up those skills first. Dodging a hit saves energy where as blocking a hit saps your strength."
Remembering how blocking Kratos' sword strike numbed both his arms Lloyd wasn't going to argue that one.
They walked down the streets, would be leaving the city because well… there weren't any places that they could fight here. Sighing, looking at the buildings around him Lloyd felt a twing of pain in his chest. He could almost see a rope tail, hear the jingle of bells… the coble stones were weird, the city crammed with buildings was weird, he'd just be happy to get out of it for a few hours. Kratos seemed to share his sentiments, they walked as fast as they could, weaving through the crowds of people and ignoring those who were trying to attract them with yells of how wonderful their wares are.
A group of children, not much older then he was, darted by laughing. Lloyd pressed against the walls of a building, it wasn't a large group but the streets were thinner here, tight enough so that those a foot could get through but not say mounted troops. Defense, PalmaCosta was a tangle of defense tactic on defense. Winding roads to make the heart and head of the city less vulnerable, a limited number of paths large enough to warrant a large number of troops easy passage, similar thoughts like that drummed in his head even as he walked and thought of other things.
Oblivious to his thoughts, having none like them themselves, were those kids. They ran not thinking of anything but running and fun. A girl zipped on by a few boys chasing her. It was innocent, their game, just a silly pointless chase. He'd been on a number of those, with and without Tylor, since Iselia was such a big open place the chases were less in a straight line, more chaotic, but by their faces no less fun. He was tempted, tempted to cast aside his blades and just join them.
It wasn't his swords any more; they weren't just the heavy burdens that drove him nuts in Iselia and made him Colette-step more then Colette. They were so much a part of him now, almost a physical part that without them he felt lessened. Little wonder Kratos had scuffled at him when Lloyd had insisted and kept insisting he was a craftsman. He still was, but he was a swordsman too. And being a swordsman meant having strategy tap around in your head all the time, and thinking of stuff that no one else would really like to know about but that you had to know about. He watched them run off, and sighed quietly.
"Regrets?"
Weird how Kratos seemed to just move into his head sometimes and read everything that was there. Bu then Lloyd was getting used to that. He was almost expecting it now.
"Yeah, a few."
"We all have them." Kratos sighed himself, a heart felt sigh. "We always will, that's one of the joys of having a conscious I suppose."
"I think, if we didn't have it, the world would be horrible." Lloyd said softly. "We'd all be like the Desian's or something even worse."
"I imagine so." Kratos gripped the hilt of his blade; Kratos' fingers strolled up and down the steel handle, an absent caress. "If it helps, think of it like this. We are not wolves as Magnius proclaimed; we are the guardians of those who can not be as we are. You said it yourself, not everyone is meant to be a warrior. Not everyone is a fighter, so we protect those not meant to hold a blade so that they never have to."
"Magnius, Genis called him a barbarian, so did Raine… But he wasn't was he? He was just a warrior who didn't protect wasn't he?"
"It's a danger, to become so hardened, to grow indifferent. You lock away the pain and the thinking and allow the blood to become the answer, the absolute answer, and like becomes easy satisfaction, satiation of the crimson lust is all that matter. That is what Magnis was, he was a man with an answer, one answer that never changed, and it has nothing to do with attack and defense."
"But thinking… You don't turn it off with just blood lust like he did too… you could turn it off by looking to someone else and just following them, like the Ch-" Lloyd mulled it over and a chilling thought came to him, one that he did not like, one that could not be spoken. He shoved it down hard, ashamed for even thinking of it, of entertaining it. Ashamed for almost speaking it.
Kratos stared at him and Lloyd bowed his head, stared at the ground while he walked, better that then those eyes that would coax him to say it. He edged around turning from the church all the way. He normally hovered between Kratos' faith and Colette's, he knew Colette's even if he didn't follow it, he did not know Kratos'. To break away, to say that it was wrong was to say the journey, that everything Colette believed, was wrong. He wouldn't do that to her, couldn't, so he kept quiet.
"Sometimes, the line between protect and attack are blurred." Kratos said at last. "So many lines are blurred, so many boundaries can be broken and shift, are… fluid despite seeming solid. If there is one tried truth it is that what we know is not absolute."
"Flu-id? Ab-soul-oot?"
Sighing in annoyance Kratos seemed to spear him with this disappointed look that made Lloyd cringe.
"Excuse me for not being as smart as you are!" Lloyd flared in frustration. "It's not like I had a gazillion years to get as smart as you are!"
"I'm not that old." Kratos growled, sounding insulted. "Not yet anyways."
"You're working on it though!" Lloyd teased, opportunity calling too loud for him to ignore, he made a few other old jokes and watched as Kratos' temper slowly disappeared under the attack. Snarling a few threats, cricking his knuckles, the mercenary advanced upon the young swordsmen, death promised in his eyes.
Well Lloyd got his chase in, though having a ticked Kratos charge after him wasn't exactly his idea of fun.
xxx
"Sword, staff, shield, call!"
"Sword!" Colette and Lloyd chirped
"Shield!" Genis laughed. "Sheild blocks sword, I win, I'm out!"
Kratos looked up from sharpening his sword, it was the first day back on the road and everyone was as healed as could be expected. Breakfast was a fond memory to all, the dishes were done, and they were being a little lazy and getting a late start because Raine insisted on putting more information in her book. They'd given her a half hour to work and the children had started this strange game. Raine had been done for a while, was just going through and making a tally of some kind, numbering the entries and making a list. Sections with no drawings were left with a strange mark and the mercenary was not bored –or stupid- enough to invoke the woman's "ruin mode" by asking a question about her work.
"What are they doing?" Kratos muttered to Noishe, scratching the creature between it's ears.
"Deciding who shares last watch." The silver haired elf answered without even slowing her pen's travel across the page.
"So then…" Kratos watched the two children, long blonde hairs mixed with the spiky mane that Lloyd sported. "Colette and Lloyd will then share a watch?"
"No," Raine smiled into her book. "They are deciding who shares watch with you."
Kratos frowned, "Lloyd normally shares watch with me."
"Yes well he wanted to change it tonight because, and I quote; 'My head hurts from last nights talk and my ears need a break from being Kratos-ed off'."
"Why doesn't he just tell me to be quiet then, or tell me these things?" The mercenary huffed, the sound made Raine look up and chuckle.
"He respects you too much I imagine. I had the same issue with him when he was younger, asked him why he kept coming to class if he was going to sleep, he said he wanted to try to stay awake because he liked me. It's a sweet kind of Lloyd gesture that he's famous for back in Iselia."
Kratos flushed, and muttered. "I don't see you playing along."
"That's because the children wont allow me, all of them –not barring Colette- think that if they leave us alone together we will kill each other. Unfortunately they are astute in that observation."
"Indeed." Kratos favored the woman a savage glare. Her arrogance was again grating on his temper, he dragged the whet stone over his blade and she grimaced at the noise.
"Call!"
"Staff!"
"Pries off shield…" Lloyd sighed. "Alright, same old same old…"
"Same really old." Genis chuckled grinning at Kratos because the man seemed absorbed in tending to his gear.
Kratos drew a throwing dagger, tossed it so that it buried itself into the ground right by Genis' feet. The elf squeaked, hopped back and the mercenary looked up innocently.
"I apologize, I thought I saw a bug."
Raine drew her staff and struck the mercenary with it a firm smack that rattled is wits a little.
"So sorry, I thought I saw a bug too."
Kratos favored her with a death glare and she went back to her writing
"Welcome to officially being an Iselian, Kratos." Lloyd chuckled,
Colette chirped. "Raine taps everyone with her staff once that she really likes them!"
Raine looked up and Lloyd gulped, he was skirting on the edge of a Raine-ing and he knew it.
"Heh, hey umm you up to sparring… Since Raine's busy and all…" Lloyd asked the mercenary, hoping Raine wouldn't…
"You need to study for tomorrow's quiz." Raine growled, burying her nose in her notes.
"But Raine tomorrow's the quiz for the Iselian unit, I know Iselia! I could sleep through the quiz and still get it right!"
"Fine, you need to help Kratos study for the quiz."
"Excuse me?" Kratos sputtered. "We have gone through this before I m no student of…"
The staff lifted in warning and Kratos fell silent.
"You have been attending my lectures your answers to the questions will allow me to tell if I'm doing my job as a teacher. Genis is such an excellent student and Lloyd is… sub-par in that department, Colette is about average. But all of them know the topic inside and out so I expect them all to pass. For one who knows nothing of it I am presented with the perfect opportunity to gauge my lecturing skills."
Kratos sighed, if he gave in it would spare him and Lloyd a lot of Hell, that was to be certain.
"He can quiz me then I will spar with him."
Raine made a face, seemed to want them to skip the sparing, but them peace minded as she was she could not understand those who took pleasure in such contests.
"Fine," Raine sighed, she knew when she was ahead. "Well go ahead Lloyd."
"Ummm…" Lloyd sat on the road to think of a few questions and Kratos mentally sighed, this was going to be a slow morning. "OK Iselia was founded when?"
"Fifty nine years ago." Kratos rolled his eyes.
"Wrong!" Genis pounced on the mercenaries answer with sadistic glee. "It was sixty years ago."
"It was off by one year!" Kratos growled.
"Wrong's wrong." Lloyd chuckled. "trust me, it almost cut it with Raine I'd be a seventy percent right student at least."
"Instead of a twe-"
There was the clap of a book closing. "Genis, have you been reading my grade book again?"
"N…no.. epp! Genis dropped his packs and made a run for it, Raine hot on his tail.
"Where have I seen this before?" Kratos murmured, lips curling in dark humor.
"Run Genis run!" Colette cheered.
Lloyd snickered, Raine was gaining on Genis, and in a few moments of the chase it would be up, and then would come the hand of doom.
"He doesn't have a prayer." Lloyd chuckled. "She jumped over a hedge of bushes, cut through a water filled wash, and scrambled up a tree after me one time."
"Wasn't that during the dwarven culture unit?" Colette asked.
Lloyd nodded. "She thought my presentation wasn't long enough, I wanted to go home, so tried to make a break for it. You know I think she was in "Ruin Mode" cuz her eyes were all weird and glittery."
Kratos made a strangled noise in his throat. Took a deep breath and when he was in control of himself asked."
"What did your father have to say about that?"
"Nothing." Lloyd watched as Genis tried to squirm free of his sister's grip, Raine had caught him in a tackle and had him by the seat of his pants.
"Nothing?"
"Raine already clonked Dad on the head and he was out cold when she finally caught me."
Kratos looked at the Iseilan swordsman strangely, it was that intent glare that read through everything.
"Please… tell me you are joking…"
"Nope," Lloyd shrugged. "Noshy er Noishe snuck behind Raine, snatched Dad's tunic in his jaws, I jumped down the tree and we barely got out of there alive."
"The professor was just curious!" Colette protested.
"Colette…" Lloyd said slowly. "Curious is asking a few questions, we'd both been there three hours already and it was getting dark outside."
Colette frowned at that, or maybe it was the spectacle of Genis being smacked firmly on the rump, Raine's cries of "How many times have I told you to not go through my stuff!" rolled across the grassy valley they traveled and reached their ears.
"She just wanted to learn."
"Let me tell you something, I feel sorry for those poor ruins we're gunna go to. I feel sorry for the people in charge at the book places we go to. And I'd feel really really sorry for anyone who like…. Lived way back when, when all of this stuff old past stuff was happening."
"Librarians run a library, not a 'book place'." Kratos corrected absently. He was watching the show with a grimace on his face. "And I think any sane person who lived in ancient times should kill themselves before falling in her clutches."
Colette giggled. "I think it'd be fun, Raine would be really happy if we found an ancient person who lived in… say the Kharlan war! That would make her really happy!"
"I believe now," Kratos watched as Raine stormed back, Genis limping behind her. "Would be a golden opportunity to slip off. Let me do the talking…"
"All yours." Lloyd grinned.
"Ms. Sage, your pupil is done lecturing me so we'll be off…" Kratos snatched Lloyd's arm, Raine's eyes flicked onto him as she read through his strained tone and saw the lie. "Damnit, it's not working, run…"
"Kratos, Lloyd, get back here!" Raine shrilled after them. "Neither of you are done studying!"
Lloyd spared a glance over his shoulder, paled.
"She's following us, she has her staff!"
"Keep running!" Kratos growled.
And they did until the sound enraged screams faded farther and farther away.
Xxx
"I can't believe this, we don't have swordsmen with us, we have children!" Raine flared, pacing back and forth. Genis lay on his blankets in pain from his punishment and the two swordsmen were hiding somewhere out in the wilds playing and avoiding there work. Oh they claimed it was swords work, but she'd seen Lloyd's cheerfulness after and that only meant that he was playing. "I'd give just about anything…"
"Whine?"
Raine turned, on silent paws he had padded up to her, a chain caught between his teeth, a whistle dangling at the end of that chain. She stared at Noishe, at the whistle, and considered it. It was her birthday gift, it was hers to use it as she wished, and she had twenty uses. She took the whistle from the dog, patted him on the head and cleaned it off then sound off two notes.
"Two fetches, two uses." Raine said to the dog who nodded as if he understood. "Bring Kratos and Lloyd back here, I need to have a word with them."
The tongue lolled out in an evil canine grin, then Noishe slinked down into the grass, his green fur making him blend in to the wilds of the off road path that they were yet again taking as if offered the faster route to the water wall pass.
Xxx
Kratos lifted his blade and Lloyd spun his blades knowing that lecture would turn into lesson in a few moments.
"When dealing with projectile weapons…" Kratos began.
"Bark!"
A green projectile, a large green projectile, smashed into Kratos and the mercenary was under three hundred and some pounds of dog. Growling Noishe grabbed Kratos' mess of belts, lifted him up and then proceeded to drag him back towards the camp they'd let behind.
"What in Origin's name are you doing!" Kratos flared, trying to squirm free.
"Grrr!" Noishe proceeded to carry Kratos back, a glimmer in the canine eyes told Lloyd that he was next.
"She used the whistle!" Lloyd said, terror in his voice.
Noishe's tail wag and wink did nothing to dispel that terror.
Xxx
Kratos was yelled at, lectured, scolded for being a bad influence. Genis laughed through the whole thing. He could tell Kratos was furious from being fetched and that he was mad and didn't agree with Raine. He stubbornly backed his and Lloyd actions stating that she had been stalling and breaking up their sparing matches every opportunity she got. Raine didn't even listen to him, just held the whistle almost like a weapon and said "you have ten times to learn the lesson Mr. Aurion" and that was that.
They waited as Noishe went out again, he was gone an awful long time, almost an hour. He came back, chasing Lloyd. The younger swordsman was holding his pants, the belts were in Noishe's mouth, that mouth was wide open and the teeth snapped a few inches away from Lloyd's behind. Seeing they were back Noishe sat down, Lloyd walked up to his dog and snatched the belts from Noishe's mouth then looked around. Genis was laughing so hard he was crying, Colette was giggling, even Kratos cracked a smile at the boy's discomfort. Raine waited until Lloyd was… better dressed, then descended on him eyes blazing. Rather the staff descended, or tried.
Lloyd dodged the first few swings, shocking all his old friends that he dared to dodge. The impromptu sparing match lasted all of five minuets, Lloyd pulled a Colette step and it was over at that point.
"I've seen less brutality in insane tyrants then in that one." Kratos grumbled, adverting his eyes as Raine proceeded to spank Lloyd.
"A what?" Colette chirped.
Raising an eyebrow Kratos stared into those far too innocent eyes.
"Never mind Chosen," Kratos winced when Lloyd called for help. "Never mind."
Sore rears aside the boys walked and kept pace with the adults. Colette rode upon Noishe with the delight of a little girl being able to ride a pony, she scratched his ears and poured baby talk into his ears. Noishe sighed content, as he was getting a shoulder and head massage. Raine was finishing her revenge as she drilled both swordsmen ruthlessly on the material for the upcoming test by holding a long string of lectures.
"I'm never ditching again…" Lloyd moaned, rubbing his rear.
"I'm never reading Raine's note book or diary ever again…" Genis moaned rubbing his rear.
"My butt hurts more the yours." Genis groaned.
"Does not…" Lloyd flinched.
"Does too…"
It didn't help that Raine was basically telling them over and over that they were getting their just deserts. After all they were her pupils, and she was famous for having high attendance in her classes. Little wonder that, Kratos growled to himself, rubbing his throbbing temples. He had gotten off lightly, the mock smack for teasing Genis had been it for him physically, and he dared not leave the Chosen to get some reprieve from the endless chatter of Raine. Never had the idea of leaving a client ever been so tempting.
When lunch came so too did the test. Lloyd scooted up to Genis, eyes roaming the elf's paper. Raine smacked him for that and ordered him to sit by Colette. When Colette leaned against him Raine split them apart and set him by Kratos. Kratos' glare was enough to persuade Lloyd to look at his own paper, and keep his eyes there.
"What kind of questions are these?" Kratos snarled, Lloyd gathered his courage and saw that he actually had more of the test done then the mercenary.
"Oh Raine put personal questions in your test too." Lloyd smiled. "She mixes old history with modern but since we're all from Iselia the modern history tends to have stuff about us in it. Number six is three years ago, the mayor put that law in after I kicked Ivan's ass, he banned outsiders from using steel weapons in town to keep me from..."
"Lloyd Irving!"
"Umm… so that's how you spell it, thanks Kratos!" Lloyd said a bit too loudly, then hunched over his paper.
"About number twelve." Kratos hissed to Lloyd when the Professor's back was turned.
"I got Raine'd today, you think I wanna go for two times" Lloyd growled. "Guess or something!"
Kratos scowled, was going to push it but Raine's eyes flicked over him. The elf was in high form today, he decided not to push his luck and stared at the question.
12) In (this order Lloyd don't get it backwards this time!) what year, month, day, and place was craftsman Lloyd Irving born?
Sighing Kratos filled it out, he stared at the next question, a grimace on his face.
13) In what year, month, day and place did the mercenary (an evil egocentric jerk!) Kratos Aurion come to Iselia.
Kratos looked at the childish handwriting that preceded his name and Genis flashed him an evil grin, all the other questions on the quizzes were laced with similar comments questioning the testers intelligence. The second Raine saw those the elf child would again be Raine-d upon there was little doubt of that.
Colette giggled, muttered something about how do you spell bunnies, and wrote something on her paper.
The last question made him laugh out loud. Raine looked up frowned, and looked to Genis a hint of suspicious in her eyes. Lloyd got to it and began to laugh too and Colette joined in. Scrawled in the last few lines of the parchment was a section of Raine's diary talking about how she wondered if someone was getting into her notes. On Kratos' copy, underneath the original text was a cutting from the elf woman's diary, an extra attachment. He scanned it, and went crimson as it detailed the… attractive aspects of his physical appearance to the female eye. After it was a rant about how annoying, arrogant, and grating he was. The line 'possessing the social graces of a boar but the physic of a man from the scriptures' was a rather tidy way to sum up the rant.
Lloyd whipped his eyes, wrote something underneath a different slip of paper that had been pinned to his paper, as did Colette. Kratos lifted the papers up, stared at the instructions that read.
Take off the diary entry, scratch a thick line through this, then write what the square root of 81 is. Leave the last paragraph as it is…
This test has been altered by Genis L. Sage, proud test changer to make all our lives a little less boring.
Undernieth that the handwriting changed from a scrawl to a mess of tangled lines that seemed to rush off the paper.
Comments on questions seven, twenty nine, and all the closing 'special notes' have been gathered on threat of life and limb by Lloyd Irving.
In small bubbly writing that bobbed up and down like a skip personified came the third to last line.
I did the cute bunny on number thirty:) C. Brunel
There was a line and a quick note in Genis' handwriting.
Comments, suggestions, that's what the back's for! GS
Post Script,
Emergency 'club' meeting, must attend if capable of moving. Genis is excused but if the rest of you guys can make it try, this is code orange leaf!
Kratos paled, that was an emergency by all means, because orange leaf…
Meant that Raine had bought a cook book and was planning to surprise them by making a recipe out of it.
Xxx
Genis moaned he was sore all over; he wasn't sitting, wasn't standing, and in a pathetic show of pain limped to Kratos.
"Heal… me… please…"
Raine was taking notes, notes on monsters or recipes? A chilling thought that. Kratos looked down at the whimpering child, patted the boy's head in sympathy. Genis cringed as his head was touched. As a blue light enfolded the boy's throbbing scalp and eased the pain Genis sighed in relief. He passed out right there at Kratos' feet he was so exhausted. They'd hiked after the test, had not stopped until dark had fallen. Raine had started a fire, her pupils were nursing headaches as they had all been firmly smacked then pushed to their physical limit. Then to add insult to injury she cooked for them. They were unable to plan any graceful retreat, all of them -except for Kratos- were on their last legs and they had shoveled down the food. Several walks had been taken; Noishe had taken one look at the orange and green soup and had ran off into the night before anyone could try to offer him a bowl.
Kratos dumped the bulk of his food behind a rock. Lloyd had tried, gotten caught and had been given a second serving and he had to eat every bite as Raine hovered over him like some demented elf Goddess of cruelty.
Lloyd had curled up on his blankets, signaled that he wasn't attending the meeting and passed out. So much for the boy sharing first watch with him. Kratos would keep his eyes open for the next set of signals, there would be a meeting, orange leaf was a code of nightmare inspiring severity. Eventually Raine began to nod off, she stuffed her notes into her nap sack and using that as a pillow fell asleep. It was only him and Colette.
"Ouch… my feet hurt…" She had her boots off and was rubbing the hurt bit of her anatomy. She had, Kratos noted, very small feet. "Today was a lot of walking wasn't it Mr. Kratos."
"Yes Chosen," He sighed. "It was. You should go to sleep child, tomorrow will be a long day."
"Mmm…" Colette considered it. "How can it be, I mean today was twenty four hours and tomorrow's twenty four hours so how can tomorrow be longer then today?"
Kratos cracked a slight smile at her logic. "It will seem long Chosen." The mercenary let his gaze slide over his traveling companions. "Some days seem longer then others."
"What'd you get on the test?"
Kratos rose an eyebrow, he was not one of her school friends, he should establish that fact right now. He held to his silence while she waited, favoring him with this patient hopeful look that made him think of another woman he escorted long ago. Still he refused to fold, held onto his silence and she began to think it over.
Good, perhaps she thinks I'm insulted, if she thought that then she would likely never bring up these tests again…
"Oh I didn't tell you what I got first.. sorry I forgot. I have a eighty nine percent!"
Kratos sighed, tossed another log on the fire and waited again for her to give up on talking with him.
"Now you're supposed to tell me what you got!" Colette chirped.
"I'd rather not discuss it Chosen." He said when the silence became too much for him to bare.
"Oh… I guess Genis is right, you must of failed."
"I did not…" Kratos snarled, then took a deep breath. "The damn test was rigged."
"What'd you get?"
"That is unimportant."
"Alright, I'm sorry." Colette looked chagrined, she must of realized that he did not want to talk.
"You should sleep.." He began again, his skin crawled when she looked at him. He hated it when someone would look at him, especially a innocent. As if what he was might rub off on them, taint them with what he was. That he did not want. "It will…"
"Water." Colette said calmly.
"Pardon?" Kratos raised an eyebrow.
"That's what's bothering the professor, she hated the pond in Iselia, and she didn't like the ocean at PalmaCosta. I bet that's what's making her grouchy."
Kratos considered it, shrugged, he hardly cared why the woman was as she was.
"I bet when we come back from the geyser she'll be alright again!" Colette chirped.
Kratos let that information sink in, considered it for a bit instead of ignoring it because of the source. If so Raine would be more hostile and violent until they could put the geyser safely behind them. That could take a while, quite a while…
And until it was over they'd all suffer, she wouldn't dare lash out at him but the children all of the children were fair game. She wouldn't hurt them, a few more smacks then normal, but couple that with travel and the strain that long term travel puts on a person. Pain became more potent on the road, weakness harder to shake with the thinnest of comforts available. That could be dangerous.
He'd been passive, sitting back and letting the dynamics between the three children and adult play out with little intervention. He would have to change that. Tapping the hilt of his blade he mulled over it, considered, and then made his mind up about a few things. He dared not be passive, he'd have to step in and stop it. Not with words, more then just words since they didn't seem to work, but actions.
Granted it was little more then what he wanted to do initially, but he hadn't dared, had been staving off forming any attachments, had been passive to ensure an easy span of gri- separation pains when they died.
"You look all funny when you think Mr. Kratos." Colette said with a yawn at the end of her sentence. "You look a little Lloyd-ish."
"How so?" He decided to humor her this once, and respond as her friend would.
"Your eyes go all small, you half close them and you tap your sword. Lloyd does that a lot lately."
"He does?" Kratos cocked his head to the side.
"M hm." She yawned again. "He's been acting a little funny lately, been thinking a lot." She giggled. "He's been looking at you funny too, when you walk. Genis says he's trying to pick lessons out of the back of your head, or he just stares at your cape when Raine talks a lot, but I don't think so."
Kratos laced his hands together on one knee, stared at her, utterly still, a stature of onyx and marble. Any other would have been worried, disturbed under the unflinching scrutiny. Colette though was immune to fear, as far as he could tell.
"Why do you think that Chosen?"
"Because he really likes you." Colette smiled. "See I told you he'd really really like you!"
He recalled the iselian temple and nodded.
"I know he wants to be as smart as you so he can protect everyone, he's always wanted to do that." Colette frowned in concentration. "It might be more though, but I don't know. You know, it's funny about Lloyd…" Colette smiled again. "He says what he's thinking a lot, so many people get mad at him for that, but sometimes… I don't know if he says everything he thinks after all. Isn't that silly?"
"No… a great many people are like that, there are some thoughts that can not be voiced. They are either not understood by those who think them, can cause great anger if spoken… or are simply too horrible to be spoken."
"I can't imagine anything being too horrible to be spoken, after all if you make it spoken you can fix I or make it go away right?" Colette smiled. "They say that those who speak of untruths and evil may at last fix them, well that's what the Book says."
"Yes, so says the book." Kratos sighed, stared into the fire.
"Mr. Kratos, I'm sorry did I make you sad?"
"No, it's not your fault, I guess I'm just naturally… sad." He winced that the word choice but was leery of breaking away from it because how much she understood beyond her spoken vocabulary he didn't know.
And he really didn't want to find out.
"I'm sorry." Colette looked if at all more distressed. "you know praying makes me happy I bet…"
He scowled at her and she paled, perhaps she was scared of some things after all.
"Sorry, I forgot, you don't worship Martel do you?"
"Go to bed Chosen." He said in an icy voice.
She was silent a long time and he closed his eyes, listened to the night about him.
"Why don't you?"
"Why do you?" He countered, putting the exact note of accusation that was in her voice.
She had the grace to fall silent again.
"Because… what she wants, a world of light, where everything is good, it seems like a wonderful thing. And to be able to give that to everyone to be in the possistion to do that… Where it's just one person who takes all the bad things and everyone else is happy. That seems…"
He opened his eyes, stared at her and she met his gaze, she fell silent.
"It's a crime." He whispered. "To me it's a crime, no man's justice is absolute why should some Goddess' be the same." Kratos recalled Lloyd's cries of pain when the boy had blocked the sword strike meant for Dorr, and winced at the memory. "There is dark, there is light, we walk in both, we are part of both. That and everything in between."
Colette drew the path mortal destiny meeting devine intervention to shield her, protect. He watched the motion, bored by it, having seen it a hundred thousand times in his life.
"Chosen."
She looked up at him, he lifted a hand brought it down.
"Devine intervention."
From the bottom of his sweep he brought it up half way, left to right to left his hand went.
"The mortal road."
He went up again, clutched at the symbol he drew in the air and put it over his heart, he spread his fingers and let her see it.
"I hold nothing more then words, nothing more then a gesture, what good a shield is that?"
She opened her mouth to protest, to explain, he met her gaze and she lost her words.
"Go to sleep child, you need your slumber."
"If you listen to those words, consider them.." Colette whispered. "Consider all the Goddess words of peace and love…"
"If you will not sleep I shall, can you stand a watch alone?"
Colette looked to him, pain, it pained her to no be able to explain. She shook her head.
"I'm sorry you don't believe." She stood, went to her blankets.
"As I am for you." Kratos looked to the fire, knew that it looked back. "Intervention only goes so far child, it is one point on a line. Where is then the rest of the world?"
Colette had no answer for him, merely went to bed, her lack of answer seemed answer enough.
Xxx
They reached the docks the ninth day o travel. Kratos had saved his butt so many times –literally- that Lloyd was floored. Raine had punished him for getting something wrong, Kratos had stepped in firmly and broke them apart. He seemed to be hunting Raine, catching the more frequent flashes of anger and deflecting them, or taking the brunt of them himself.
Saying 'thanks' over and over seemed so lame, so he stopped. Kratos understood he was great full, kept it up. At night though, on his lone watches, he had begun to work on something that might say is thanks for him. Humming he whittled while he sat on the dock, watched the shavings o his work drift away. Kratos was taking the brunt of Genis' mistake now of putting the dark clothes with the lights while they were being washed. Raine dared not hit him, Kratos had tolerated the light smack on the road the first day since it'd been more of a joke then anything, but if Raine honestly tried to scold him like that. She hadn't forgotten Triet and neither had Lloyd.
Noishe padded up to him, the figurine was almost done, Noishe sniffed it, him, then sneezed.
"Sop being such a baby Noshy." He grinned, patted his dog's head. "You think he'll like it?"
"Bark!" Noishe bobbed his green head and Lloyd smiled.
"I hope so, well this is the last of it, at least now…"
"Hey Lloyd, what'cha'doing!" Colette pounce hugged him and he laughed, set aside the carving to return the hug.
"Carving a little trinket." He smiled as he was released and Noishe was given a playful scritch.
"Oh, it looks like a knight!" She picked up the armored swordsman, the fire patterned flowing armor that hung over it's frame, a sword pointing to the earth rested in clasped hands, and it looked sternly ahead. "It's really nice Lloyd!"
"Thanks." She hadn't noticed, but the knight was wearing a sparrow tail styled cloak. There was a little of everyone in the figurine set he made. From the wolf crests on the foot soldiers shields, to the twin swords strapped to the archer's sides. The priest's looked a lot like Raine, and the magi troops sported kendamas. A little of everyone I you knew where to look.
"So are we going tonight?" Lloyd asked, wanting to get there already and see the geyser. "Or are the ships out or something?"
"Candy says we can't go today because the boats sprung a leak."
"Oh.." Lloyd smiled. "Oh well, tomorrows a good day as any."
Poor Kratos, he was going to be trapped in a house of salvation with Candy. Poor poor Kratos, the woman was already hinting that they'd get discounts if Kratos would just visit her for dinner.
Well maybe Lloyd could make the mercenary forget about the crazy girl for a little while.
Smiling he picked up the knight he'd just finished, rolled it over on his hands.
It would be worth a shot.
Xxx
The others were asleep, after bending over a map and talking for a while Raine, Genis, and Colette went to bed. Noishe was cuddling with Colette, letting her lay against his back so long as she tucked them both in with the blanket. It was a strange sight indeed, while Noishe liked Colette Lloyd didn't think it was the cuddle kind of like. Noishe normally only cuddled with him when he needed/wanted it. How Colette was sleeping wit the dog snoring up a storm was beyond Lloyd, even the swordsman who loved his dog like no one else always wore ear plugs when he slept curled up with Noishe.
Kratos looked up from his book he was reading, he was borrowing one of Genis, the smaller elf's thanks for saving him earlier no doubt.
"You've been watching me like a hawk." Kratos said, setting the book on his lap. "Is there something so fascinating with my face?"
"Ah… no." Lloyd felt himself going red. "I just… here." He pulled out the box from his packs and put it on the table that the mercenary was sitting by.
Kratos stared at the box, and at him for a long long time.
"Lloyd, what is this?"
"Something." Lloyd felt himself going hot, damn it this was embarrassing. The way Kratos was acting was like he'd never gotten a present before. "Just… open it."
Kratos shrugged, pulled open the latch and stared at the contents of the box for a long moment. He did not breath, his eyes went wide and reached out and pulled out one of the aggressive dark knights. The figurine wielded a double edged sword, was frozen in mid salute, a shield strapped to it's arm. Trembling Kratos stroked the knight set it aside pulled out another piece, one of the magi. He traced out the kendama sheath that Lloyd spent forever and a day struggling with, stared at the two pieces as if eh couldn't quite believe it.
"Your Trava set was getting a little run down looking, no offense, and well…" Lloyd shrugged. "I'm not done yet, I only have the primary opening pieces done and none of the higher classes but I figured it's a long trip it'll give me something to do, you know?"
Kratos looked up from the table, his eyes… they glittered as if with tears? No way, Kratos never would cry, he was too strong for that.
"I don't know what to say…" The man whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
"How about a game?" Lloyd offered weakly.
Kratos stared at him, as if not believing that he was seeing him. As if he was certain he was still asleep. He took a deep breath, nodded.
"A game… sounds nice…"
"I get Noishe's side!" Lloyd smirked, pointing to the armored people that had the symbol of the wolf.
"Then, I will take the Aeros side." Kratos picked out the people with the hawks on their shields and standards.
"Aeros?" Lloyd set up his pieces.
"It's an ancient term for a bird, a hunting bird that was in lore most have forgotten a great guilder and protector of Mithos and his companions.
"Really?" Lloyd brightened, "You know stories about the Kharlan war? Not like history but I mean real stories…"
"I know a few." Kratos spared him a humored glance. "My people take note of the lore not the dates of the time. Perhaps, as we play I can relate a few…"
"Would you, that'd be great! But… well you might wanna keep it down cuz of Raine."
"Only if you do the same."
Lloyd chuckled, took the hit bravely enough
"Yeah I'll keep my trap shut."
Kratos smiled warmly, a honest to Gods warm smile that ignited in his eyes.
"They say… that the true adventures of Mithos and his companions were not on some great battle field, but began on the banks of a river. There, long ago they met a human, he was alien and savage, brutal but honorable, a mess of contradiction, and it was shortly after meeting this man who was lost in his own intricate web of lies and counter lies born of hatred and frustration… that the true path, the true cause of the wars became known to them." Kratos caressed one of the knights with a finger, drew out the patterns and ridges of the armor. "With this man of contradiction, a maiden of purity, a man of rightousness and honor, the… Hero stumbled upon a monster who could wear the guise of mortal man."
Kratos set the knight forward, set a legion of them forward. Lloyd freed up some of his archers, had them 'hide' in the wooded forest.
"He was the deceiver, the tormentor, and he came to them in the guise of purity and betrayal…"
Kratos began to fan out his soldiers, was going to search and destroy the forest while doing so. Cursing Lloyd pulled out a magi to slow them down.
"That's crazy, people being more then one thing at once..."
"Is it, aren't we all?"
Lloyd considered it, nodded, and winced as Kratos freed up some of his archers, his wizard was going to be in trouble in a little bit.
"Damn it!" Lloyd freed up one of his archers from 'hiding' and positioned him to attack Kratos' sniper.
"Language Lloyd." Kratos scolded, then he continued his story, told the tale of Mithos as Lloyd had never heard it before. A story where there were no angels, there was no Chosen. A story that could have very well gotten Kratos into a ton of trouble anywhere else. As they played on, Lloyd had to wonder, which story was true. They finally stopped half way in a game because Lloyd was yawning so much his jaws began to hurt.
"Go to bed Lloyden, there will be other nights." Kratos murmured as Lloyd began to yawn but protest that he was wide awake.
"Mm… fine fine…" Lloyd growled, grouchy for being over ruled. "Ne…" Lloyd's words ended in a mumble, he tried again. "Next time I've got more of the pieces done… I'll give 'em to you."
"I would appreciate it." Kratos said softly, fingers absently tracing one of the few remaining pieces with slow teasing caresses. "I would like that very very much."
Lloyd stretched. "G'night."
"Good night."
There was something in the man's tone, a strong almost pull made him turn around. Lloyd turned, stared at the man. Kratos had forgotten him it seemed, was focused on the gift. Almost entranced by it. It was as if never having gotten one before. And suddenly Lloyd knew, he knew that Kratos never had been given a gift before. Or maybe hadn't gotten one in a long long time.
That seemed really sad somehow, sadder then sad. There wasn't enough words to say how sad that idea was to Lloyd. They hadn't had much, but his father occasionally went out of his way to make something for him, and he for his father. He did it with his friends too, worked with wood because it was easier then steel and you could carry it around to work on it when you had nothing else to do.
"Go to sleep Lloyd." Kratos whispered softly, his voice choked, and there were tears in his eyes, honest to the Gods tears.
"Kratos are you OK?"
"I'm fine, but you need your sleep."
Lloyd considered pushing, considered pressing and getting the man to tell him what was wrong, and as if sensing that Kratos looked to him and smiled.
"It's been almost eighteen years since I was given a gift, this… means more to me then you can imagine… Please, for a while I need to be alone."
"Alright." Lloyd whispered, "If that's what you want, alright."
Kratos chuckled, looked back on the knight, the knight that looked much as he did. He listened as Lloyd went to the bed, laid down and was soon fast asleep. He stood stroking that knight, caressing the wood, until dawn.
Xxx
"Washtubs!" Lloyd stared at them in shock. "These aren't boats they're…"
"Washtubs… hmmm…" Kratos cocked his head to the side. "I've never… imagined a stranger way to travel."
"Oh this looks fun!" Colette chirped.
Everyone else rolled their eyes.
Raine whirled on Kratos.
"This is all your fault!" The woman poked Kratos in the chest. "If you hadn't been so stuffy and insulted Candy by turning down her invitation to dinner then she wouldn't set us on these… these..."
"It wasn't that innocent, and you aren't enough of a fool to see that it was not some innocent little dinner she wanted." Kratos growled, his eyes blazing.
"Guys!" Lloyd put himself between the adults, he pushed them apart and gave them both a long look. "We'll make this work, heck me and Genis used a washtub to race around the lake when we were little."
"One of the more stupid things we did."
"Nah painting that verse on Ivan's house was the stupidest…"
"You did that!" Raine shrilled, her hand descended and Lloyd winced at the hit. "that's vandalism young man!"
"What's my name again?" Lloyd whimpered, rubbing his head.
Kratos firmly pulled him away from Raine, muttering something about pointed eared psychopaths.
"Come on Raine, let's go!" Genis was getting antsy, after he spent all night reading about geysers he wanted to see one. He grabbed Raine's arm and she let out a scream that made them all gap.
"Ahh…" Lloyd muttered, staring at Raine in shock. "Professor are you sc-"
"I am not scared of water!" Raine snapped, promises of a Rain-ing dancing in her eyes, at that horrible threat Lloyd cringed back.
"I didn't even say anything." Lloyd hissed to Kratos.
"There are four tubs." Kratos said, refusing to answer Lloyd at the moment when Raine was in hearing range. "There are five of…"
"Bark!"
Noishe shoved his way past Kratos and hopped into a tub.
"No Noishe, you can't come with.."
"Grrr!"
"Out, now!"
"GRRR!"
The argument grew louder on both sides, Kratos only looked at it, rose an eyebrow but continued.
"There are three tubs, five of us."
"That's easy, two a tub, and someone gets their own tub." Genis then stared at Raine who was as pale as a ghost. "I think someone should go with Raine… What I can't I'm too short to pull me and Raine in that thing."
Both swordsmen looked at each other, gazed at Colette who was cheerfully dipping her toes into the water and singing a ditty about rowing a boat, then looked at Raine.
"Hey, ever play Sword, Shield, Staff, before?" Lloyd asked the mercenary.
"No, but I guess it's time I learned."
Xxx
"You cheated!" Kratos hissed, as he unlooped the rope around the pier, a paddle in hand.
"Oh shut up, like I have it any better." Lloyd growled, tying Noishe's 'boat' to his. The dog looked pleased with the arrangement. Set on going, he'd howled so shrilly that Candy had come out to tell them that they had to take Noishe with them, that or the guards of the temple would do something about the 'racket'.
"Lloyd, let's go!" Genis chirped, hopping up and down in the raft.
"He's going to make it fall over before we get their." Lloyd grumbled, finishing the last knot.
"Capsize." Kratos corrected.
Lloyd favored the man with a long nasty look, ideas of 'accidentally' 'capsizing' Kratos' 'boat' danced in his head.
Xxx
Colette was thrilled, she hummed her song and then once they were out at sea began to sing.
"Row, row, row, your boat gently down the stream! Merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily…"
"Whine!" Noishe slicked back his ears in pain, Colette had a nice voice it was just painful to hear that word over and over again.
"Merrily, merrily merrily merrily merily…"
"Chosen, it's only four "merrily"s!" Kratos called, sounding a little panicked.
"Oh sorry… Once I start it's kind of hard to know when to stop!"
"Sing something else then!" Kratos called, Raine was a ball of whimpering terror that had it's claw- erm arms wrapped around him. It was all he could do to paddle.
"Oh I know, 'It's the song that never ends it goes on and on my…"
"Must not kill client…" Kratos mutered, tried to focus on his paddling. "Must not kill client."
It had been an hour of her singing and not stopping, an hour of listening to childish ditties and "merrily"s and religious hymns. An hour of non-stop singing. They all were muttering Kratos' mantra to themselves at some point. Happy to have her own boat, Colette paddled and sang with abandon, she was a natural at this, and had to actually slow down and wait for everyone to catch up to her.
"Hey, I know a good song!" Genis smirked. "Row row row the boat gently down the stream, throw the mercenary over board and listen to him scream!" Genis ended his song with a muttered spell and the waters around Kratos rose up and splashed him in the face. Snarling the mercenary glared, but several feet away he could do nothing unless he planed on hopping out of his tub and swimming up to Lloyd and Genis' then throwing Lloyd overboard to have room to thrash Genis. Screaming in terror Raine dug her nails into his waist as the water fell into the 'boat'.
"The second we land boy…" Kratos hissed.
"Someone started singing it never knowing what it was…"
"If we last that long," Lloyd whined, rubbing his head. "Colette, try a different song, please?"
She giggled, then launched into a religious hymn about sera-fooms or whatever. Lloyd just sighed and kept paddling.
"Whine!" Noishe put his paws over his ears.
"You and me both." Genis said, patting the dog's head. The dog's tail thumped against the side of the 'boat' and he barked cheerfully.
"Hey, Kratos, how long till we get there."
Kratos glared at him, probably thinking that it was going to be a repeat of the Iselian temple.
"Honest, all I wanna know is if this is gunna take another hour."
"Less then half if we hurry, I swear if that assassin is out there she'll be able to follow us with all this… 'music'." Kratos shivered.
"Fa la la la la…" Colette had started some winter's festival song.
"What about we really hurry?" Lloyd whimpered, his ears were killing him. "Really really really hurry."
There was no more talking as they all focused on paddling, all except the singing, the endless singing. If there was a Martel even she would be driven crazy by all this singing, Lloyd decided. Never again would he ask Colette to sing a song to pick up the pace of the journey. Kratos picked up his mantra, Genis and Colette's nick-names (must not kill elf and client) now added into it. Raine and Noishe had a whimpering competition, and the distance between Thodia and them closed at a snails pace.
It was going to be a long trip.
Review response:
Crazygirl306: Thanks the syrup scene was a fav of mine too. I imagine if you like that brand of humor the washtub scene will rock your boat… or should I say row?
FallenStarAngel: ditto, hence the anti-magnius rant. Well thanks hopefully this one is just as good. Yeah… about the Ranch, I'll mention it next chapter, (don't tell anyone I forgot !) I'll squeak it in somehow.
Shadowddwolf: I've been busy writing. Glad it makes your day better shadow, and no fears about Kvar, he will probably be evil enough to give you the chills. In DES I was told he did that and I took enough notes on how to present him in that story that I know how to do it here. And he had his eyes open, maybe I'll have an explanation on that for the sake of some humor.
Gamecubegirl1: I love fluff/quirky scenes too, so I ry to squeeze as many in as I can. I answered you via e-mail about the name (please don't put in spoilers in your review btw) so I won't rehash that… you'll probably love the "row" scene.