Okay, update! Yay! Was hard to get this done hope you like it though!
Disclaimer: Own nothing I do
Kratos frowned, scanning through the shelves of various ores and minerals. It had to be here somewhere, they had the most extensive collection of geologic samples outside of Cruxis. There was nowhere else he could possibly procure it without alerting Cruxis to what he was doing, so he would just have to- aha, there it was. The Seraph relaxed a bit, taking the box from the shelf to examine the contents. One large slab of adamantite, not the best quality but it was good enough for its purpose. He sighed in relief, closing the box back up and inserting it into his wingpack. That was one down, now if he could manage to get a hold of Sacred Wood…Presea would likely know how to get that, if she didn't then surely the Tethe'Allan Chosen or Regal would.
"Dad? Are you in here?"
The man turned to the door as Lloyd walked in, the dual swordsman spotting him and responding with a smile.
"There you are, we were wondering where you went…what are you doing in here? Looking for something?"
"Yes." Kratos nodded. "Something you will need in order to use the Eternal Sword, once we have healed the Chosen."
The teen frowned a bit, eying his father.
"And that thing is…a rock?" he asked, looking around.
"A mineral to be more precise," Kratos stated with a small smirk, walking over to him. "But yes. Once we have the time you may look at it if you wish, I'm certain Raine will want to inspect it as well."
"…Aren't rocks and minerals the same thing?"
"No, we will be headed to Heimdall now, am I correct?" the Seraph asked as he walked past Lloyd to the door.
"Heim what-? Oh! The elf village, right? Yeah we were just getting ready to go," Lloyd said, following the angel out of the room. "You've been there, right? What's it like?"
"Much like Iselia actually, quaint, wooden houses, lots of greenery," he explained as they went to meet the rest of the group. "They are not big on shops like humans are, for the most part, but it's very similar."
"You really think they'll just give us the herb?" Lloyd frowned. "I mean from what I've heard elves-…don't really like non-elves. I'm sure we'll find a way to convince them but I'd like to know what we're in for."
Kratos blinked, looking at his son with his head tilted slightly to the side.
"Planning ahead, good," he nodded his approval. "You are finally learning to think before you act."
"Hey, I've been doing a lot of planning ahead for a while now." Lloyd huffed, his cheeks slightly tinted despite the dirty look.
"Yes you have," Kratos chuckled, smiling slightly as he turned his eyes back ahead. "You really have grown quite a deal since the start of all this, Lloyd."
A brief smile crossed Lloyd's face before he turned back to the door, walking out.
"Well we should get going, no time to waste, right?"
The Seraph said nothing else to him as they rejoined the group. He was beginning to feel irritated with the blatant looks of mistrust and suspicion he received from a good number of them. He had done his best to simply ignore and accept it, it was to be expected after all, yet…this whole situation had left him feeling notably more hostile than he usually was. Whether that was simply because of their hostility or perhaps some after-effect he wasn't sure, but it was a moot point at any rate.
Luckily attention was diverted from him by the village, which they all seemed to at least find interesting, having never been to an elven settlement. The only time he ever had to really draw attention to himself again was when the met with the Elf Elder.
"Kratos? What are you doing here, with these humans?"
"They are looking for mana leaf herb, is there any sored in the village at present?"
"You know him?" Lloyd looked back at him.
"Kratos has been known in this village for a very long time, young human," the elf frowned. "Why is it you seek the herb?"
"Our friend is sick and she needs it to cure her," Lloyd explained.
"I see…well if Kratos is with you I suppose I must oblige. There is none stored here as of present, however, you'll have to fetch it from the Storyteller at the gorge."
"Gorge? Storyteller?" Lloyd frowned.
"The Latheon Gorge where the Elven storyteller lives, he's akin to a historian for the elven people," Kratos explained. "It's northwest of here."
"Take this staff and show it to the gatekeeper," the old Elf said, handing it to Lloyd. "He will grant you access."
"Thank you." Lloyd took it.
"…Kratos, does the boy know?" the elf eyed the Seraph.
"..."
"Huh?" Lloyd blinked, looking back and forth between them.
"…I had visited here before and explained that if you ever came to Heimdall to offer their assistance to you, before we joined up to pact Efreet," Kratos said with a slight frown. "I told them because..."
"Because he's your son? So you told the elves to help him out? Huh, actually not a dick move from you, that's pleasant," Zelos said with a slight smirk.
"Hmph."
"Oh so it is known, I see. He looks much like you, Kratos."
"I would argue he looks more like his mother, but…thank you." Kratos finished awkwardly, just a bit tense as if he wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Er, well, thanks for giving us permission, Elder." Lloyd cut in, addressing the old elf.
The elf responded with only a curt nod before dismissing them with a short wave of his hand toward the door. Lloyd hesitated a bit but left with his friends, getting back outside into the village. If Lloyd found the experience bothersome he didn't show any signs of it, simply packing away the staff and looking toward the entrance.
"Let's hurry up and go, I don't want to keep Genis and the Professor waiting too long."
"Yes, I hope they're okay." Colette said.
The two of them where the only ones who seemed to be acting…'normal', from what he knew of them at any rate. Zelos' suspicious gaze was always on his back, Presea and Regal, while less hostile, by no means were keeping their attention off him, they had been doing that for some time, watching him in silence. Sheena was clearly very awkward with the entire thing, but she had never been very good at deciet..or stealth. They were all rather irritating to deal with, but none of them were as bad as the half-elven professor; impossible, stubborn woman…
"Er…Hey are you okay?" Lloyd spoke up. "You've got kind of a scary look on your face."
"I'm fine, I'm merely a bit tired. Let's continue."
"I thought you didn't get tired?" Lloyd blinked, tilting his head a bit to express his puzzlement.
"I have a higher threshold for physical tiring but I do still tire, Lloyd," he said simply.
It almost made him glad to be back to 'normal' actually, that old body he had had was so very prone to exhaustion. Feeling young, if only physically, was very nice he couldn't deny. It was too bad that mentally there was no way to relieve the kind of exhaustion that came from age….
They reached the village entrance, Genis and Raine looking up as the group approached.
"Did you find it?" Raine asked.
"Er, not exactly," Lloyd said. "But we know where to get it now, there's an elf that lives in a place called Latheon Gorge and he has some."
"That's not far from here, to the north, I believe," Regal stated.
"If we hurry we should be able to get to the top before it gets dark," Zelos said. "I don't fancy climbing up or down at night though, that sounds like a bad time if I ever heard one."
"Why? Is it dangerous? I mean more than usual?" Lloyd asked.
"Well no one's really been up it but some researchers under order from the king." Sheena shrugged. "But from what we know of it there's a lot of steep and narrow trails, and there are a lot of cliffs. There's apparently some really weird plants there that eat fruit though."
"Oh..well, I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle." He grinned in response. "All right! This sounds kinda cool, I've never seen a fruit-eating plant, isn't that like, cannibalism? This sounds neat!"
"Are we at the top yet?"
Half the group expressed their exasperation with a sigh, Kratos amongst them, rubbing his temple.
"And of course he's bored," Genis muttered under his breath.
"I thought you thought the flowers were really cool?" Sheena shook her head.
"Well they are, but it's been like….hours-"
"We've been climbing for twenty minutes, Lloyd." Presea reported calmly.
"You have to pay attention, Lloyd, you might misstep-" Raine started.
"I know, I know! Geez, as if I don't get that enough from him as it is." Lloyd jerked a thumb towards Kratos, who titled his head in a slightly amused expression.
"Well, then perhaps you should listen to us," he said in a slightly lighter tone than usual.
Lloyd grumbled a bit but silenced as they continued on their way.
That lasted all of ten minutes of course, before he spoke up again.
"If this place is at the top why can't we just use the rheairds and fly there?"
"The cliff walls probably act as a wind-tunnel, making the currents turbulent," Raine explained. "If we tried to just fly down from above, the rheairds would likely crash into the walls."
"But we've been floating around in bubbles! That can't be any safer!" Lloyd exclaimed.
"The 'bubbles' are made of mana, Lloyd, the rheairds are machinery. Physical things like wind don't have as strong an effect on it, it reacts to the currents the flowers emit because they are directly in front of the source." Kratos stated, scanning the area for danger out of habit.
"How do you guys always know everything?" Lloyd shook his head, baffled.
"If you paid attention you would learn something too, Lloyd," Genis said with a snide smirk.
"Shut it!"
The climb continued for a while with no real event other than the usual chatter, Kratos keeping his position to the back where he could observe them all. It was the place he fit, he believed, when he thought about it. He did not belong amongst them like that, talking and joking about, or even walking by their sides. No, he had and would always be an outsider, but he was fine with that. It contented him to observe, to watch his son laugh and joke around with his friends. It reminded him, a bit, of back then…watching Mithos chatting with his sister, exchanging quips with Yuan, while he walked in the back with Noishe beside him.
"So this storyteller is supposed to be really old, and know a lot of the old history, right?" Lloyd asked no one in particular. "So do you think he'll like, know stuff about the ancient war?"
"That's a distinct possibility," Raine said, her eyes lighting up just a bit at the thought. "However we won't know for sure until we get there."
"Well I guess if we really needed to know anything about it we could just ask Dad." Lloyd shrugged.
Kratos tensed just a bit, beginning to say something to the teen but was cut off.
"What do you mean, Lloyd?" Presea tilted her head a bit. "Because of his knowledge from Cruxis?"
"What-? No, I mean, he was there-….oh crap."
Kratos sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as all eyes went to him. Lloyd attempted to stammer out some kind of lie to cover up for his slip, but Kratos shook his head.
"It's done with, Lloyd, they most likely would have figured it out once we reached the storyteller at any rate."
Lloyd flushed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
"Sorry…."
"Wait- you're how old? I mean I figured you were old obviously but- how old?" Sheena stared.
"The Ancient War was over 4000 years ago, are you claiming you are that old?" Regal asked incredulously.
"I am," Kratos said simply. "I had already told Lloyd how old I was, given circumstances it hasn't been necessary to tell the rest of you that just yet. It's a moot point now, of course."
There was a flash through Raine's eyes and Kratos took a step back, the woman however, was surprisingly quickly near him, grabbing his arm.
"How is this accomplished? How could your skin even stay intact after 4000 years of weathering?!"
"Professor Sage, if you'd like detail I'll explain them best I can later, once we're not in the middle of a monster-infested gorge," Kratos snapped curtly, pulling his arm away from her.
"Does your body convert mana into some sort of regenerative energy-?"
"Hey, hey Genis," Zelos grinned. "Your sister is checking out Lloyd's dad."
"Raine!" Genis blurted, red in the face. "Stop! You're embarrassing m- us!"
Well, if nothing else, at least things were a tad more lively with this group than the one he traveled with before. Slightly more insane, perhaps, but in a more amusing way. They managed to get Raine to calm herself and proceed up the path once more, though the frequent, quick darting glances from the half-elf made it clear that she was going to have her time later.
"Whew….what a day, that plant was a pain…"
The rest of the group groaned and murmured in agreement, rubbing their aching limbs. Kratos silently tended to the campfire, knowing they would all need their rest for the next day. The next day which would surely be the most risky and dangerous part of their mission… He frowned, glancing up at the sky where he knew Derris-Kharlan orbited. Welgaia, Cruxis' base, they'd have to go right into the heart to get the mana fragment necessary to cure the Chosen. Not only that, but the last piece to the ring of the pact was there as well, the aoinis… No matter what happened that was needed, he had to get it, had to get it so the ring could be created and Lloyd could wield the sword. Once the ring was in Lloyd's hands, there would be only one thing left to do…
Was it wrong then, that suddenly, he was apprehensive? Was it wrong that now, after thousands of years, the idea of his death chilled him? Why was it that now, of all times, now when his death was necessary, he did not want to die? Though, really, he knew the answer to that question. His russet eyes glanced over at Lloyd, who was currently having a bandage changed by Raine, a cut he had sustained in the gorge. It would have been easier, he thought, if he had never become 'Richard'. It would have been easier if Lloyd had hated him, had labeled him off as nothing more than a traitor, and never knew who he was.
He still called him that name, that title, 'dad'. He was still calling him 'dad', even after all this. How? How could that boy- that young man- still always have it in his heart to give so many chances? How could he be so…so…much like his mother. Kratos sighed, going back to his task of readying the pot for their meal; well, their meal, he didn't have to or plan to eat. He wondered, a moment, if maybe Lloyd would be upset now… Would he? Would he be upset when he died? Angry yes, much of what he did made him angry. Especially ideas such as sacrifice, he detested the concept. Likely, the teen would blame himself for it, if he were to give his life so that the sword could be used.
There was no other way, not in this. The only way to save both worlds, to save the Chosen, to save everyone, was for Lloyd to merge the worlds and reawaken the tree. The seal was his life, he would have to die to break it. That was all there was to it, there was no stopping it. It was best, then, if Lloyd just was kept in the dark about it. There was no point in causing him to stress and worry over it when there was nothing that could be done.
He would be causing him enough pain soon enough, anyway…
A little short, and I know I skimmed the end of Latheon Gorge but nothing really different would have happened so I figured there was no point in boring you with it. Again, sorry this is a bit short and the wait and all, but I really did have such a hard time getting this out. Next chapter should be longer, and definitely more eventful…
Review please?