Pumpkin King

By: Bobby D

Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia and its characters, universe, etc, etc is not mine…otherwise I'd have money, and prestige and various other shallow things

Chapter 2-Where in God's name am I?

Suddenly I found myself in possibly the trippiest experience of my life; there were bright lights all around me and I was floating towards what looked like a desk…it was a desk, and behind it sat a rather plain looking women, her brown hair was speckled with gray and thrown hastily in a bun, her clothes weren't much better, they too were rather plain, just a drab brown tweed jacket thrown over a white blouse stained with various food and an ankle skirt that was, you guessed it, plain!

"Thank you for your high estimation of me," she interrupted suddenly "but we don't have time to go over my fashion sense and…plainness I believe were your exact thoughts."

There was silence as I floated in front of her "That was sudden; you didn't even let me finish my thoughts on your plainness and rather frumpy bo-."

She blushed then shushed me "Shush! Have you always been this," there was a pause as she though over her words "bold, in fact it says here in your file that you are actually rather shy, says here not more then a hundred words to any new acquaintance?" she questioned…questioningly.

"Yah, well seeing your sister die and being sucked into a portal by a bunch of singing red lights let me see how short life is and how stupid it can sometimes be!" I replied with a hiss.

"Don't take it out on me!" she yelled with an equal amount of venom " Take it out on those stupid soul-sucking…" there was about 30 seconds of angry swears that just can't be published.

"Hoo! Now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's time to explain a few things…let's see, it's here somewhere…" the plain, I decided to call her, was digging through her desk "found it! Let's see now, number one, explain current situation to the departed. All righty then, Bobby! You see, you were sent here by what's known as the Kricks, a race of parasite's that feed on the soul of children, that's what happened to your sister by the way, when Halloween, as you humans call it, comes the Kricks are released from their otherworldly prison by their combined powers, where they descend on some hapless dimension and start feeding on the souls of sentient creature's, who measure to about 13 years or younger in human terms, the Kricks like to make portals to other dimensions to draw in children to the feeding grounds, as they call it. You see children are naturally attracted to otherworldly phenomenon so it, being the weakest of otherworldly magic, is used." She sucked in a breath; it looked like she was going to go on.

I butted in before the plain could go on "How was I attracted to the portal then? And why were they singing? And is my sister really dead? Could I get her back?" I exclaimed in a rush.

" Whoa, calm down, I'll answer your questions, let's see…you we're attracted to the portal cause your so childish but still older then there victims preferred age range, so they got rid of you, you would have been sent to dimension 829, which would have been sad as it's pretty much a wasteland with only small settlement of victims such as yourself, why were they singing, it was feeding time, that's why!" the plain took a breath and continued

"And to your question of her life? Yes, in a sense she is alive, only it'd be really difficult to get her back, requiring the death of every Krick that fed on her, which would require a brand of magical power called mana, made only in dimension 28, Symphonia I believe it's called…and boy is it screwed up, let me tell you! Uh, anyway the good news is, those Kricks that killed her are currently hiding in Symphonia! There all hiding as guardians of the seal for Cruxis, the local angels of doom you should know by the way, the names of the Kricks are...Ktugach who is in The Triet ruins, Adulocia who's at the Thoda Geyser, Iapyx who's at the Balacruf Mausoleum and Iubaris who is in the Tower of Mana!" she beamed.

"Uh, exactly why are you telling me this…wait a second! You want me to get the soul bits, don't you! No effin way! I'm not going to Symphonia! This is like one of those self inserts on FFnet! I'll die; I'm not a warrior or anything like that! I can't fight! I'm a pacifist; I've never raised a hand to anyone! " After my tirade was down I hung my head and mumbled,

"You don't give a flying fart, do you? In fact, I bet all this explaining was just to keep me occupied till you could send me without a complaint, right?" I sighed.

"Quite the tirade, but true nonetheless, and don't worry you won't have to fight-"

"Really!?" I butted in again, "No fighting at all, cause I was thinking you could just make a portal to every monster and just kill it for me and-" ,then she proceeded to cut me off!

"Yeah… nope! We can't mess with time like that, causes strange things to happen, your just going to have to kill them yourself! Or… you could go with the group of heroes and they could help… And your going to have to fight, your just going to use magic! Ya see, being a monster your not restrained by racial magic, unlike humans, elves, half-elves, etc etc"Again she beamed.

"Now let's see, my list, we kind of got off topic for a bit, okay! Unfortunately the spell the Krick put on you is irremovable, different brand of magic see? So you'll be that lovely costume your in, that is until you kill the Krick seal guardians, little by little you'll turn human again! Now let's see, let's fix up the costume, looks…cheap." And she snapped her fingers and the pumpkin (or I should say my new head) was perfectly symmetrical instead of lumpy and misshapen, my cheap dollar store clothes and my cape we're upgraded to look real and my Grim cane was replaced by an old-fashioned wooden cane with a statue of a pumpkin on top, in essence I was the Pumpkin king now, even my crown was solid gold, just a plain solid gold though, no adornments.

"Nice! I really look like a king!" I exclaimed.

"It is nice isn't it?" she said, admiring her handiwork, "Anyway, the crown has special properties, as you defeat the bosses in that world, your crown will gain an elemental jewel, adding to your power!" she exclaimed.

"Cool! Uh, is that all then, I'm getting tired of the vortex thing and the constant floating, can I go now? Pleease! I'm bored, and your not very pleasant to look at." I whined.

"Quit whining!" she snapped "There's one more thing, you have a bit of control over monsters, just enough to tell them to get away, or to attack this person etc etc. Basically your own personal one man army! Okay, let's recap!" she beamed.

"Uh…I got it! Can I just go, please?" I seriously did not want to go over all that again.

"Fine, fine. Now go down the right till you find the number 28, go in the portal, you should end up right near the beginning of our heroes story, now shoo! I'm getting tired of your orange face!"

And with that I had begun my journey.

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Yay! Chapter two! I got a little carried away with the whole explanation thing… anyway, hope you enjoy! I'll post the next chapter maybe in a day or two, kay!