Chapter 25 EDITED
(Thanks Sapphire!)
A/N: Man, never, I mean never, underestimate the kids in this group…. Genis shines, and so does Lloyd, in this chapter, some Kratos angst at the end.
"At the very least explain why!" Kratos' anger was threaded with a note of desperation; Lloyd remained silent and kept walking. "Ish-ya, Lloyden, secan mereth!"
"You can yell all you want, Kratos, I'm not talking to you." Lloyd snapped over his shoulder.
"Lloyd." Raine hissed as she walked up to the swordsman. "You're pushing Kratos too far, he's not even sane and…"
"Not now, Professor," Lloyd snapped. Shaking off her hand from his shoulder, he went back to walking while Colette and Genis looked on in shock.
Almost like a charm, or more like habit, Raine turned on Kratos. Noishe's ears slicked back as the two adults began to fight, each putting the blame squarely on the other. Colette looked uncomfortable and walked a little faster to put some distance between herself and the adults. Genis' pale face went red with anger as the fight went on and on and Lloyd didn't do anything to stop it. Because Lloyd didn't act, Raine and Kratos started to get vicious with each other, both drawing from the more colorful sides of elvish to describe exactly who's fault it was, and why.
"Just shut up!" Genis screamed.
Raine's eyes nearly popped out of her head, she'd rarely seen her brother lose his temper before; normally he was as cool headed and calm as she was.
But then, today seemed to be full of surprises.
"I can't stand it, you two keep fighting over everything and it's not just driving Lloyd crazy, it's driving me and Colette crazy too! Just grow up or something and stop fighting!"
Raine sputtered, even Kratos seemed taken aback, but both adults were nearly struck dead from their surprise when Colette turned to them and nodded her head to indicate she agreed with Genis.
"Five," Lloyd announced mysteriously, turning his back to the adults as he went back to walking. Genis scrambling to keep pace with the long legged swordsman.
"Nah, three."
"I'd say nine!" Colette chirped, skipping up to her friends.
"Bark!" Noishe put in firmly.
"Bark's not a number, Noishe," Lloyd sighed.
"Whinnne…"
"One of these days you'll figure out how to talk but I guess it's not now, but I bet when you do talk you'll be good at it!"
"That's the way to look at it Lloyd!" Colette cheered.
"The Chosen's attitude... is contagious…" Kratos muttered that under his breath and grimaced in disgust.
"Was that the wind?" Lloyd growled. "Must have been. Anyway, nine's giving them waaay too much credit Colette."
"Giving who too much credit?" Raine snapped.
"Rather windy, isn't it?" Genis smirked, and then he drew out his kendama and allowed the ball's tapping to give him a rhythm to his lecture. "The phenomenon must be due to the proximity of the Seal of Wind. You see, an altar of Cruxis gives off waves of mana which, unlike most mana, has a signature aura or element. In short, it merely amplifies the land's natural mana."
"Maybe eight?" Colette hazarded.
"I'd say three." Genis grinned. "Their maturity rivals a three-year-old throwing a tantrum."
"What was that!" Raine shrieked.
"Can three-year-olds have tantrums?" Lloyd mused. "Aren't they a little young for that? I thought five-year-olds had tantrums."
As the debate went on, Kratos began to struggle holding back his venom-slicked responses while Ranie's eyes promised all the children a firm Raine-ing. But their threats and their anger fell on deaf ears. Or rather, it fell upon ears that refused to hear. It was at first frustrating, then slowly shifted to frustrating to terrifying. It was almost as if they were being locked out of something, deliberately, maliciously being locked out of the only place in the world with a bit of warmth and light. Yet there was no door, no key, no walls; the sun shone upon them and the wide expanse of the Asgard plains rolled about them as they trod over it. They were free… and yet closed off. Together… yet abandoned.
And by the quiet desperation that replaced the burning hate in Kratos' eyes, the mercenary could see it too, and did not like it in the least.
X
The isolation was total, and it was destroying them.
Kratos had ceased even trying to talk and had watched with no small envy the children tighten the walls of their friendship about them to make up for the "absence" of the adults. While Kratos and Raine hovered on the outskirts of the children's collective awareness, the children talked and gossiped and pointedly ignored them both. They weren't talked to, nothing was pointed out to them; they could have been ghosts for all the attention they were given.
The only slight comfort was that when Lloyd's eye did drift in his direction. There was a hint of pain and loneliness, and then the wall of indifference was in place again.
And as surely as Lloyd's eyes would accidentally slide over him, Genis' eyes strayed to his sister.
They would break, but what side first? And what would result from the breaking? If it were the children, they would tender an apology, and the adults would graciously accept it, and things would go on as they had before. If it were the adults, he could not guess Raine's reaction. Perhaps some crying and sniveling, but on his end… He always feared madness -which was an all too real possibility considering all he'd seen and done in his life- and he knew a rational man did not take pleasure in the pained gaze of a child. Yet it was the only pleasure for him: it was an echo of the old friendship, the old warmth.
He shivered and drew his cape tightly about him. It was a futile exercise that the wind mocked by tugging at his cloak and laughing amongst the blades of grass that tangled around his knees.
Genis squeaked, perching himself on Lloyd's shoulders so he could see. The boy excitedly chirped out something and pointed. Kratos shook himself and stared blankly at the mess of tents and dull-hued pennons flapping in the breeze.
"Trading Caravan?" Lloyd wondered.
"No…" Kratos frowned; his voice came out almost rusty from disuse. "No wagons."
"What's that have to do with it?" Genis blinked.
"No wagons, no stuff to hold stuff, so probably no stuff to trade," Lloyd explained before Kratos could snap something cutting.
"Ohh… maybe it's a pilgrimage!" Colette chirped.
"Those flags look black." Lloyd frowned, one hand drifted to the hilt of his sword. "Don't Martel people hate black?"
Colette nodded, and the cheer left her too. It seemed as if Lloyd's somber mood was as catchy as Colette's cheer.
"Should we go up and see what's going on?" Genis hazarded.
Lloyd's hands clenched on the hilts of his blade, released, clenched again, then released.
"I…" And in that tone Kratos could almost hear the plea that someone else take charge, just this once. "I don't like it, but I don't know what to do," Lloyd said at last.
"Oh come on, Lloyd!" Genis teased. "You always know what to do!"
"We could go around I guess…"
"I could scout ahead." Kratos offered.
"No, I'll go ahead." Lloyd fiddled with his swords some more. "Me and Noishe have been doing it for years."
"This might be a little more dangerous than sneaking up on Ivan, Lloyd," Colette whispered.
"Come on, Noishe," Lloyd called. "Let's go, boy!"
"Bark!" Shaking himself sharply, the horse-sized dog shrugged off the straps and mess of gear and wormed out of their baggage by only taking one step back. "Woof bark!"
Lloyd pulled himself onto Noishe, and settled himself onto the curve of the animal's mid-back. The ease he did so attested to years of Noishe riding experience.
"Now, no howling if you see bunnies!" Lloyd scolded affectionately. "Got that?"
"Whine?" The sound could have well been a "who me?" comment.
"Yes, you!" Lloyd smirked, leaning forward and grabbing a fistful of mane in each hand. "Let's go!"
"Bark!"
Taking one look over his shoulder to see that his rider was firmly in place, Noishe dug his paws into the sod then charged down towards the camp, as silent as the night wind.
X
"An hour. That's all the time I will give him, an hour," Kratos growled, pacing back and forth. The man's black cape snapped behind him, like a vile oath, the sound was harsh, sudden, and came at every turn. "Then I'm going after him."
"You're just presumingthat something bad is going to happen," Genis pointed out. "He's done this sort of thing a lot when we were avoiding Ivan or pulling a prank. Lloyd knows how to hide."
Raine blinked and stared at her little brother.
"Lloyd hid from Ivan."
Genis nodded. "When it was just Ivan who had a sword Lloyd would fight, but when Ivan's friends started getting swords…" Genis winced. "Or rather when Ivan's friends almost turned Lloyd into dog meat after one nasty fight, Lloyd started running and hiding more then fighting."
Raine could have no more believed that then she could have believed it if Lloyd suddenly became fluent in say… Angelic overnight.
"Genis... I find that hard to believe, he never came to me hurt… not that often anyways."
"There were some things he didn't talk about. Getting hurt meant he was weak; he didn't want to admit it so he always hid after a fight went bad."
"How often did he do that?" Raine asked. "And why didn't he tell me about how bad it was getting – why didn't you tell me at least? He was putting himself in danger every time..."
Genis just hunched miserably into himself and stared at the plains, at the camp… anything but his sister.
"I know... and he asked me not to tell you, so I didn't. But every time he was late, I mean really late, he was in a fight with Ivan, or had to sneak past Ivan to get into town." Genis sat down, tucked his knees under his chin and stared at the camp. His dark eyes darted around, trying to pick out a hint of silver and green, or a flash of red. "Every time... you yelled at him and he didn't do anything wrong..." The small wizard's hands clenched, like talons, and he sank them into his legs, not caring about the pain. "He tried to do everything right and all you did was get mad at him. M... Marble used to say to wait, to hope that things would get better... But all they've done is got worse."
Before Raine could say anything, before Colette could promise that the Regeneration was going to make everything all right, a shadow fell over the small elf. Kratos knelt, reached out, and with a gentleness that shocked Raine to her core, placed one hand under her brother's chin and forced Genis to look into his black eyes.
"Had he stayed in Iselia he would have been killed. He no longer is in Iselia, therefore he is safer. While this journey is not safe by any stretch of the imagination he is alive, that's how things are better."
"He's miserable because you're fighting with Raine."
"I said he was better off, not happy."
His face pale, marked with thin streams of water, the wizard looked up into the warrior's dead eyes. Looked past the tangle of auburn locks, and into the black yet some how brown eyes of the mercenary.
"Whose fault is that?"
Kratos winced, as the child with only twelve years of life justly rebuked him.
Though she was not on the receiving end of that accusing blue-eyed glare, Raine winced as both the words and tone not directed at her hit home.
X
The tents were empty; no one seemed to be around. Fire pits had been dug, wood, blankets, pots, pans, food, all had been set aside. It was like someone had been setting up a camp and then had… just walked away.
"Whine!"
"It's alright. Noishe." Lloyd reached out and patted his dog on the head. "No one's here…"
And maybe that's what made it un-alright. No one was here, and while he was used to the sound of wind over plain there should have been something… people sounds, voices, but there was none. The hairs on the back of his neck were pricked up, his ears straining to hear even the slightest sound. And all he heard was the sigh of wind over ground, the rustle of grass being played with by Sylph.
Frowning, the swordsman knelt; he stared at the pair of tracks. Long, steady, parallel gouges in the ground made a trail that lead to the forest...
"Come on Noishe, let's follow these for a little 'fore we head back."
"Whiiine."
"Stop being such a baby, come on!"
Noishe only lay down, right in the center of the deserted camp and stared at him with wide brown eyes.
"Alright, fine, I'll go." Lloyd grumbled something about chickens, but even as he did so he had to admit that part of him –a new cautious part that Kratos probably had smacked into him during swords practice- was wondering if Noishe might not be making the smart decision. Well, being new it was kinda small and his enthusiasm and curiosity made it easy for him to ignore. "I'll be back in a bit."
Noishe whined. His tail wagged in a good-bye wave even though his eyes silently begged him not to go.
X
"It's been half an hour already!" Kratos hissed. As the minutes trickled by, the Iselians had the dubious pleasure of watching the mercenary's temper deteriorate as well as his mask of composure. Raine firmly escorted Colette a safe distance away from the man's profane mutterings, but for once Genis didn't join his sister, or Colette. Kratos scared him when he was calm, not when he angry like this.
When Kratos was like this, he was like a kid throwing a tantrum, and that wasn't scary, it was somewhat funny actually…
"Why do you care? You don't care about anyone anyway," Genis snapped; he tapped the spiked orb of his kendama against the steel platted limbs which jutted out from the strange weapon's sides while he talked.
Kratos flicked one eye on the elf child, his lips curled into a mocking half smile.
"After all you've seen, you believe your sister?"
"Your threads?" Genis sniffed. "They showed you cared for someone. Not that you care now."
Now that Kratos wasn't pacing, now that he was still, the man's cape fluttered down until it tangled about the man's ankles.
"Death changes nothing, not the depth of my feelings for the person who you Saw. Do you forget your friends the second your back is turned from them? No more -I imagine- than I forget mine who lay under the sod."
Genis snorted, tapping a monotonous one-two beat with his kendama, fitting his words with the rhythm of the "tick tap" of his play.
"You're caring for Lloyd is just part of your maladjusted social tendencies. Those tendencies lead you to obsess over someone who's obviously deceased – someone who has been deceased for years. The trauma of separation coupled with your mental instability make you believe that you can redeem yourself by forming a totally unhealthy bond with Lloyd and has you currently supplanting him –in your mind- as your offspring."
Kratos raised an eyebrow.
"So, Raine told you."
"No, I figured it out after Palma Costa. I'm short, not stupid."
"You're arrogant, naïve, both you and your sister. Neither one of you are equipped to understand anything beyond intellectual curiosity and acquaintanceship."
The kendama made an interesting clack noise as it missed its mark and grazed the limb on the left side instead of hitting it full on. Because of the miss, the weapon's string tangled with the staff and Genis yelped in pain as the orb brushed his hand as it tangled.
"Wha… what was that!" Genis snarled, worming his hand out from the weapon and throwing the worthless thing at the ground.
"You claim that I'm a heartless bastard, at least I've heard your sister say as much, but how can I be when in the past I've formed such strong bonds with others? Bonds so strong, that –as you said- the absence of the person I am attached to warps me?" Kratos' dark eyes glinted with a cruel light that made Genis' skin crawl. "When Marble died you cried, but that was it. You cried, but now instead of making their life a part of yours you drop the person like unwanted baggage."
The small wizard went pale, his skin went a snow white, and tears burned in his eyes.
"If there is someone that is heartless, it isn't me," Kratos hissed.
"Ob… obsession isn't love. And I care for Marble, I'm not heartless!"
"You cared for her, that doesn't mean you care for her now." The mercenary casually threw Genis' words right back into his teeth. "When you "let someone go", when you forget them and lock the memories away, you forsake them. And you'll do it to them, to all of them when they die, won't you?"
Pale, trembling, tears spilling down his cheeks, the wizard stared up at the man who was little more then a black blur in his vision.
"Never mock me in my grief ever again." Kratos' voice was tight, twisted by a dark rage. "Or it will be the blade in my hand you feel, not the blade which serves as my tongue."
With that the mercenary left the child to cry. Two old griefs were made new to them both by only a few careless words.
X
Had he been going home he might of whistled, maybe hummed, and if he was in a really good mood he might have done a little jig. The forest brought a twinge of nostalgia to him, of homesickness. He forgot his tracking for a moment to take a deep breath, to enjoy the smell of leaf and tree, but even as the smell was familiar the pathless forest before him told him he was not home. Still he walked on, confident that he could find his way back if he needed to…
"What the…" He walked up to a grey stone; there was a bit of wood underneath it. He knelt, pulled upon the wood and with a 'crunch' it came free. It wasn't bark; it was a wooden plank, like part of a house, or a box, of a wag-
The rock's red eyes flared open and he staggered back. The "rock" rose, it was perched on a long steel hued neck, it looked as if plate mail had been fused with the skin, but the plate mail was the skin, and the rock was a head.
"Aaawk…"
Not having lips it snapped its jaws together, its wide red eyes flashed, then settled upon him, and what he could have easily mistaken for a mess of boulders rose up. It had thick powerful legs, claws on the end of its feet, and a hide of steel. Lloyd could only stare in horror at the veloco-dragon. Dad had told him stories of the things; Raine had told him stories about them, about how people would "ride" them. He hadn't believed in it – hadn't really believed in dragons… Kratos' story about how he'd seen a dragon underground once suddenly didn't seem so funny right now since he was looking one right in the face.
"Hehhssss…"
Fire dripped from its lipless mouth.
Swords would be useless against this thing, yet it was all he had…
He drew his blades, even as he backed up.
The bushes around him rustled and he stared at the bandits, the bandits who were with the dragon, then a steel clad man walked up to the dragon and put a hand on the monster's flank.
A dragon rider… he was looking at an honest to Gods dragon rider.
"Put down the weapon boy, ye can join the rest o' the caravan o' ye can go in FireStrykes belly, choice is yers o' course but I'd be dropin' them swords."
There was a creek, a string being pulled taunt, and Lloyd knew what that meant. Archer, somewhere behind him there was an archer. He dropped the blades, stared at the men that he could see. They all grinned; one of them came forward, rope in his hands…
Oh Gods… Lloyd closed his eyes, frustration, anger, shame, ran through him… but he couldn't do anything, he couldn't fight a dragon. As the rope bit into his wrists he stifled a cry of pain and stared at the grinning bandits. Some were human; some had points on their ears. Half elves, elves, he didn't know, he didn't ask. He staggered forward as the man who bound his hands roughly dragged him forward, and strangely he thought of something Kratos had said.
Discretion, a well placed deception, the effects of both can sometimes outweigh the value of an honorable death.
As he heard the bandits talking of the pens he shuddered, and wondered what the Hell it all meant.
X
"Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu"
Genis whipped at his eyes for the fifth time, certain there were no tears on his face he walked towards the sound of Colette's singing, and he was shocked to hear Raine's voice mix with his oldest friend's. He never knew that Raine could sing!
"Ut-pedu pede ped'a'il erend. Trut ne'nuhjorinu'illisa Nuhjney."
Colette stopped and turned, she smiled and he smiled back. It was a weak, thin, smile, but neither of them seemed to notice.
"Hi, Genis." Colette chirped. Her pink wings fluttered happily behind her and Genis was a little surprised that she'd drawn them out. He hadn't seen them in weeks.
"Hi, Colette."
Sis gave him a long look and Genis had a suspicion that while she didn't know what Kratos had said, she knew that the man had said something that had hurt him.
"Is Lloyd back yet?"
Genis shook his head.
"Where's Kratos?" Raine's voice had a hint of steel in it.
"Off somewhere being a jerk, I don't know," Genis huffed, setting himself on the ground. "You know how he is."
Raine nodded. Yes, she knew how much of a jerk Kratos was so she didn't ask anything else. Colette's sky blue eyes went misty, and she bit her lip.
"Sweetie, is something wrong?"
"N… no…" Colette shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. I just hope he doesn't go after Lloyd by himself."
"He won't." Raine stood. "I'm getting worried as well. We should go looking for him, together."
She offered Colette a hand and the white clad Chosen took it with a smile, she extended another hand, and Genis found a shelter against Kratos' accusations when she touched his shoulder. He wasn't heartless, he'd never forget his Sister, or Colette, or anyone.
X
"Where, do you think you are going?" Raine snapped, the dark shape that was descending the hill froze, and the man turned, looked up at the teacher who was surrounded by her pupils.
"To investigate, something's wrong. And I'm not content to sit back and wait any longer."
"Next time you get that idea Mr. Aurion, I'd highly recommend you not to follow it through. We aren't walking baggage you know, we can help."
"Seceae?"
"Kratos, that wasn't very nice!" Colette huffed, and then she gingerly picked her way down the path, her pink wings quivering with every step.
The mercenary watched her, and then he crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.
"Chosen One, you are aware that you could fly instead of walk down the hill, correct?"
"Really?" Colette looked at her wings. "I don't know Mr. Kratos. They're a little small I don't know if I could fly with the-"
With her wings out she tripped. She slid down part of the hill and landed at the startled mercenary's feet and looked up at the man, a helpless look on her face.
"Oww…"
"Seceae?" Kratos said again, meeting Raine's eyes in some bizarre challenge that no one really understood.
Sighing Genis scrambled down the hill, got to Colette's side and helped his friend up.
"You know, you could actually help her." Genis snapped at the man.
Kratos' only response was to look down the path and begin yet again to climb down.
X
"I… can't believe this…" Lloyd stared at the man who he was sharing a cell with, and the red clad man grunted with disgust as he looked at his younger "twin". "What the Hell are you doing in here?"
"Was going to Balacruf." The man grunted, ugly bruises covered his face and his red tunic was ripped up at the back. "After you guys got that damned tablet and the town got wind of it we had to go…"
"You're still doing that?" Lloyd sputtered. "Still playing the Chosen game?"
Lych laughed, it was a sharp bitter sound.
"Like we had any choice, kid."
Lloyd didn't say anything, couldn't think of anything, and he honestly didn't care. All in the center of the clearing there were wooden cages, the poles were sunk deep into the earth. The people inside stared listlessly ahead, their hands were bound, hopelessness was written out on every face. Who they were, he didn't know them. The same dead but not dead look blurred their features.
Lych, who had stood to glare at Lloyd when he entered the cell wearily sat back down again, he looked at the world beyond the cage, his face numb of any feeling.
"Where's the rest of your friends, kid?" Lych asked after a long moment passed. "Caught?"
"No, back a ways, hiding."
"Don't get your hopes on them coming, mine tried, they're in the cells in the back. They haven't been taken by the Points, but give it time; the Points take 'em all."
"The who?"
"Points, pointy ears, steel skulls," Lych said enunciating each word slowly, like Lloyd was stupid or something.
Still Lloyd didn't understand.
"The Desian's you idiot! There's a ranch in Luin, but the head guy sends people out all through the land to kidnap people."
"Crap," Lloyd said at last.
"Crap." Lych agreed. "And the thing that pisses me off is there human, most of 'em. If I had my swords for five seconds I'd…"
Then Lloyd remembered, he sat and then reached down at his boot. The hilt of the knife Kratos had given him was still there, his fingers brushed against it and he stared at the rope bonds over his hands.
He heard Lych ranting, but he didn't hear one word, he only stared outside his cell, his mind whirling.
X
"'Hoy fellow pilgrimer!" A harsh voice called out. Colette blinked, looked at the scruffily clad man who was stepping out from the camp to greet them. "You wouldn't be a bandit by any chance?"
Raine snorted, ran a hand through her hair.
"Sir, do we look like bandits?"
"Naw, just checkin' that's all." The man grinned at them; put his hands on his hips. "This here's my people's camp, you're welcome to come in if ya like. Gotta tent ta spare and all that."
Kratos stiffened, Colette could feel him tense, the man's eyes drifted one way, and then turned to slits that locked on the bearded man with a dangerous intensity.
"Kratos, is something wrong?"
"Oya'illun-ust yet."
Colette let her eyes drift to the left; she could see a glint of silver in the green, a flash of brown.
"No-"
Kratos put his hand on her shoulder and tightened his grip till tears sprang to her eyes.
"Not a word Chosen, not a word." He hissed, his voice a breath against her ear.
"Could you help us?" Genis asked. "A friend of ours went this way and he hasn't come back."
"He's something of a firebrand," Kratos injected smoothly. "A little wild looking, red clad, carries two swords, brown haired, has brown eyes."
The man smiled, it was a kind of oily smile that made Colette's skin crawl.
"Naw sir can't say I heard of 'im. But maybe Strykes heard o' 'im. Strykes a smart man, sees a lot, I'm jest a gunt, ya know?"
"I do now…" Kratos murmured his dark eyes very, very hard. "Ms. Sage, we're desperate, we might as well ask for some sort of help."
What was Kratos doing? Everything in Colette told her to run, to get away from this man and the camp!
Raine frowned, her eyes dark with thought.
"I'd rather not leave the children…"
"We should bring them along then." It was said so lightly, so easily, but Raine jerked and then glared at the man.
Raine and Kratos' eyes met and their silent clash of wills made Colette tremble.
"We got a tent, perfect for ye and yer little ones. If yer leery of havin' 'em cap wi' me and the boys ya can take the tent out in the forest a ways and jest set up thar. Hell fires, we could jest send ol' Stryke down ta the camp once yer littles are asleep and settle matters then."
Raine's smile was thin, watery as she proclaimed the idea a marvelous one.
"Raine..." Genis hissed.
"Come along, Genis." She grabbed his hand, and keeping him as close to her as he could manage approached the camp with their eager guide.
"So-" Kratos' eyes were steel hard as he talked to the man, not that the dark haired man even noticed anything past the soothing tone. "-what business are you in, you have a multitude of tents and I strongly doubt that this is some sort of wandering pilgrimage."
"We're in the mercenary business. We're jest a clan o' relatives an' the like who like swords."
"Ah…" Kratos' tone become soft, a dangerous growl threaded under the last word he would speak for at least another hour. "Interesting..."
X
"You have a freakin' kni-" Lloyd grunted, he'd watched the guards, when they changed shifts if seemed as if it was long enough to cut his bonds and break down the door. That would be the best time to run, when they're guards were down. So he had waited, and the second that they left and went back towards the camp…
He cut the bonds and then turned to Lych.
The red clad man paled and began to stammer.
"Oh shut up, I'm not going to kill you, you dork!" Lloyd reached out and grabbed the man's arm. He sliced off the rope and then put the knife back in his boot. "If they catch us hopefully they won't guess how we got free if they don't see the knife, and I can get it out fast enough if we do run into trouble..."
"You're… saving me?" The man gapped, staring at his freed hands.
Suddenly the Kratos-y part of him surged to the top, and he grinned as he recognized it.
"No, I'm making sure that if I get hurt you'll get the message to my friends. Now shut up and leave me alone for a bit, and get away from that wall."
Lych did so, his face baffled, then a silver blue light gleamed from Lloyd's hand and the swordsman felt again that strange lightness and distance from the world. Growling Lloyd smashed into the bars, the power of his exsphere made them go flying and clatter against the trees that ringed the cell filled clearing.
"Holy shit! What the Hell are you?"
Lloyd shrugged; honestly there were some days he didn't know. Shaking his hand, trying to banish the heat in his blood and the feeling that if a strong enough wind came around he'd just float away, Lloyd grabbed the impostures arm and pulled him out of the cell.
"Come on!"
"Wha-"
Sighing Lloyd grabbed Lych's arm and dragged the imposture behind him, running away from the cells and back, back to the fields where his friends…
From above came a hiss, he shoved the man forward even as his left leg collapsed under him.
Whimpering he crumpled, stared numbly at the arrow, at the approaching archer. Gritting his teeth he reached, grasped the arrow, and with a whimper ripped it out. He could hear the archer yelling.
Lych hesitated. Lloyd growled and crawled to his feet.
"Run." He drew his knife, the archer's eyes widened in shock, and then the man coolly notched another arrow. "Damn it, run already!"
Lych took one step, then another… only when the man broke off into a full sprint did Lloyd relax. He turned, knife in hand, and heard the hiss that marked another arrow's flight, and threw himself to the right.
The tree a few yards behind him now had a new feathered decoration. Lloyd quickly pulled himself to his knees, lined up the dagger, and threw. The human bandit fell, a knife in his throat silencing his final cries.
Then the other bandits came, the appeared out of nothing almost, knives and clubs in hand. There were five of them, one of him… He clenched his fists, ready to fight them until the end.
Then behind him he felt a hot wind blow against his neck, a large shadow blotted out his own, and a steel sword pressed against his throat.
Closing his eyes, unclenching his hands, he let out a sigh.
He could punch a bandit, knock them out, but punching a dragon…
"A feissssty one." A voice behind him hissed. "Kvar likes them like that, yessss?"
There were agreeable nods, looks of terror cast at the monster and it's rider that were behind him.
"Chainsss thisss time foolssss, chainssss and tie him to the possst by Flamesss nessst."
They saluted and Lloyd's heart sank as he heard someone run off and then come back with something that clinked and rattled.
When they pulled him to his feet he cried out in pain, collapsed on his hurt leg. Rough hands then dragged him away from the cells, and he yelled, thrashed, and fought them the whole way.
X
"Just set up the tent," Kratos snapped at the protesting elf and Chosen. "Don't argue, do it, we have to make them think we believe them, and if we are attacked you two are least suited to handle the situation."
While the children worked on the tent and pretended to set up a camp Raine grimly watched the path ahead while Kratos watched the path behind. She heard it, a snapping of leaves under feet. Before she could call out Kratos was by her side, his sword in hand, his eyes locked on something coming at them that she couldn't see…
Growling he dropped into a crouch, blade weaving before him, then she saw it. A human, running towards them, a flash of red, was it Ll-.
"You!" Kratos roared, and the person skidded to a stop.
"Holy shit! Not you again!"
Snarling. Kratos charged, the man screamed and tried to bolt. Never had she seen a human run as fast as Kratos did. The red clad man was over run in mere moments then dragged back by his hair and thrown back into the clearing. She stared at the red clad man, but no recognition came to her. Genis and Colette left the tent to stare at the battered human and the mercenary (who had put a sword to the whimpering man's throat).
It was Genis who remembered the name.
"You're Lych from Asgard!"
"One of the impostures. This one is the man who wounded Lloyd in Palma Costa." Kratos snarled, and Raine shivered, if she left the man alone with this… imposture she had little doubt that Kratos would kill him in cold blood.
"Kratos, he's hurt, we have to heal him!" Colette cried out.
"Like Hell this bastard will be healed. He owes me a debt…"
Lych whimpered, and then as Colette and Genis argued with Kratos, the man's dark eyes grew crafty.
"Not unless you want that kid of yours dead, old man."
All talk ceased, Kratos' eyes burned into the imposture.
"Talk."
"There are slave traders that a way, I'd point but you'd skin me if I twitch. I'll take you to where he is, you don't kill me, we clear?"
Kratos seemed to swell with rage, fire licked along the edge of his blade and the imposture swallowed, hard. He wasn't the only one, Genis cringed behind her and Colette took a step back from the mercenary.
"Hell, you pay me and I might even tell you what kinda odds you're lookin' at." The imposture grinned up at the Kratos.
The mercenary turned his blade around in his hand. His expression devoid of any emotion he calmly thrust. Lych screamed, arched as the smoldering blade smashed into his leg.
"Oh goddess goddessgoddessgoddess!" Lych screamed, his body spasming as a lighting spell ran down the Kratos' blade and into him.
"Kratos, stop!" Colette screamed, wrapping her hands around the mercenary's arm, trying futilely to pull the blade out. "You're hurting him! Stop it, please!"
"Kratos, stop!" Genis shrieked.
Face pale, hands shaking, Raine pulled Genis to her, held him close and looked at the mercenary.
"Kratos." Her voice was little more than a sick whisper. "Your son would expect better of you then this."
Sense returned to those black eyes. Shuddering, the mercenary pulled the blade out of Lych's leg, the spells of fire and lightning faded away.
"Heal him," Kratos spat, sheathing his blade even as he walked away from the clearing. His face cool, calm as always, save for his eyes, where the shadows within seemed to writhe. He walked away, like nothing had ever happened.
Only Raine saw the man's shoulders shake; only she saw -just for one second- the tears that fell down from the man's eyes.