Hello Again. & here with the second chapter. Thanks for the reviews in Ch. 1 and i myself think that this is a much more superior chapter. There's a battle and a lot more dialogue. Also Sheena and Lloyd's relationship starts to get closer. Well enough of my ramblings... DISCLAIMER: I dont of Tales of Symphonia.
Sheena woke up around 5:00 a.m. She looked over at Lloyd and noticed that he was out cold. She smiled. "I really do love him." She sat at the side of his bed and watched him sleep. Sheena started to lightly push the hair off of his face. Lloyd started smiling in his sleep. "He's very cute in his sleep."
Taking a quick look around the room, Sheena got up and was going to head outside. She always did this sort of reconnaissance type thing whenever she woke up. "I guess that's part of being a ninja from a hidden village", she sighed. Suddenly, something didn't seem quite right. She looked at the table and noticed that their exsphere bag was missing. "Gone?! Are you sure you didn't overlook it?!" Panic was starting to set in. Looking at the door, she noticed that it had been forced open with a crude implement suggesting they had been robbed.
"Hey Lloyd, wake up!" Her voice was a little shaky.
"What…" Lloyd barely managed as he was starting to wake up. "Sheena, it is very early in the morning and I want some more sleep."
"Lloyd, we've been robbed. They took that bag filled with exspheres."
"What? No way…" Lloyd stood up and looked around the room himself. The bag was nowhere in sight. "What the hell happened to them? Did you see who took them?"
"No, I was asleep too." Sheena sighed and started looking for the slightest clues as to what happened. Lloyd looked at her with a slightly confused look.
"What are you doing?" Lloyd was out of it. He had just woken up and for this to be presented first thing in the morning, it was a little much.
"I am looking for footprints, tools left behind, anything that will give us a slight clue as to who did this." She looked at the floor near the foot of the door. There was a small, dirty boot print and a fishing hook lodged into the door lock. "Why would a fisherman attack us?"
"Hey Sheena."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Can I have my jacket back?" Sheena instantly blushed at the sound of this. She had forgotten that she was wearing the thing.
"Sure", she squeaked out awkwardly. "Here you go." She handed the red jacket to Lloyd who graciously accepted it back. Lloyd then looked at Sheena's face and started to notice that she was blushing. He started turning red too. "H, Hey", blurted Sheena, interrupting the moment. "We should probably try and find this guy before he gets too far away."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll go check with the innkeeper." Lloyd walked out of the room leaving Sheena alone.
"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." She always choked up in situations like this. Clearing her head, Sheena also walked out of the room and continued to head out of the small inn, into the town center.
Lloyd had been questioning the innkeeper for well over an hour now. The innkeeper told Lloyd that she had seen a suspicious looking man lurking around the Inn a few hours ago. He wore a cloak and hood but had large, obtrusive boots. She said that she saw him leave not even two hours ago. "We still might be able to catch him before he goes anywhere too far" thought a relieved Lloyd. He thanked the clerk, paid for their room, and headed out to see if Sheena had found anything.
Sheena had no luck with asking questions to the town people. Not only did no one see the person, they also weren't too pleased with Sheena asking too many questions. She eventually gave up and looked out in the desert to see if she could find footprints. The wind had subsided and she could clearly see footprints, similar to those found in her room, going east towards Ossa Trail. Content with what she found, she hurried back to Lloyd.
They met and instantly exchanged what they had found. They left the second they realized where they were going and soon arrived at Ossa Trail near a familiar sight that wasn't too welcoming to Sheena.
"Hey Sheena, take a look at that." Lloyd pointed towards a small trap door and lever sitting in the side of the hill.
"Lloyd, don't even joke about that." She almost recoiled as soon as she saw the door. Just looking at it brought bad memories. "That almost got her killed, thanks to Colette's clumsiness." She shuddered. "Do we have to go down that?" Her eyes were pleading not to.
"I am sorry but we might not be able to catch that guy if we don't." He slowly walked over to the lever and pulled it, revealing a square hole going straight down. "The guy we're chasing didn't seem to notice this, and it does take a while to travel over Ossa." He had a point. She didn't want to experience the same feeling however.
""I, I know, it's just…" Lloyd walked over to Sheena and put his arm around her waist causing her face to rapidly flush.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." The words Lloyd uttered sounding as if they were music to her. Although still skeptic, she had calmed down and looked over at Lloyd.
"Alright, I'll go." Almost as soon as she said that, Lloyd grabbed her and leapt down the dark shaft into the cavern below. They landed softly and Lloyd let Sheena go. He peered into the caves ahead of himself, his eyes still adjusting to the light.
"You do know a way out, right", Lloyd turned to Sheena who had previously been there.
"Yes, but if I hadn't, your plan would have fallen to pieces." "This guy is so impulsive sometimes…" Lloyd just gave that reassuring smile he always gave. Sheena sighed. "This was going to be a bother at times." "The exit is just ahead of us."
"Nice", Lloyd said with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice. He loved exploring places although he tended to lose that enthusiasm after a short amount of time. "Hey we might even find a little treasure in here."
"Please be realistic, Lloyd. We need to get out of here and catch whoever robbed us."
"Oh yeah, sorry I kinda forgot about that for a second back there…" Sheena groaned again. "I was kidding, just kidding. Don't take it so seriously. Anyway we should start going. It's too dark in here." "Just like the Temple of Darkness."
They both started walking forward and eventually entered a chamber with light pulsating from one of the walls. As they approached it, the wall gave way and a tall figure donning a cloak stood in their way. He had a small bag attached to his belt. He said not a word to the two of them.
"Hey, those are ours. You honestly think you have the right to steal those from us?" Sheena was getting pissed. She hated self-righteous people. "A plague on society." She drew two cards, both a glossy black adorned with white symbols and seals. "I'll get to test these babies out." She smiled and prepared for battle.
Lloyd followed suit and drew two broadswords, different from Flamberge and Vorpal Blade. He had left those two behind with Kratos and his mom. Lloyd looked over at Sheena and nodded, signaling that he was also ready for combat.
Suddenly, the cloaked man pulled the cloak off himself revealing a muscular, silver-haired elf. He had throwing knives and a large claymore on his back. He meant business. Chuckling, he threw himself at Lloyd and swung the claymore with almost inhuman strength.
Lloyd stepped back, scarcely dodging the large blade. Lloyd jumped in and started swinging his own blades. The elf blocked most of his moves and as Lloyd came in for another swing, the elf side-stepped and kicked Lloyd in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Sheena, realizing that Lloyd was wounded, jumped in using Pyre Seal to blow the elf away from the two.
Lloyd stood up and ran up to the flustered elf, using Fierce Tiger Blade and landing with a Super Sonic Sword Rain. He could see the effect it had on the elf. He had multiple bleeding wound and a large cut on the side of his face. Still, the elf smiled fiercely and jumped back.
"Let's finish this", said a cold, detached voice. "Form a torrential vortex and engulf my enemies. TIDAL WAVE! Suddenly the caves filled with jets of water that started pelting both Lloyd and Sheena. They both cast Guardian on themselves and were saved from the bulk of the damage.
Sheena disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only to appear behind the elf. "Life Seal", screamed Sheena and she could feel her body rejuvenating from the instant healing. She followed up with Power Seal Absolute, dropping the foe's defense. The elf could feel his strength being taken and swung the claymore to knock Sheena away. She fully took the blow and was launched into the cavern wall. Lloyd realized there was only one way to finish the battle.
"Sheena we need a unison attack!" Sheena looked up and tried to carry herself over. As soon as she was close enough, Lloyd screamed out "Power Thrust" ripping both Lloyd's blades and Sheena's cards into his body.
As soon as the attack was over, the elf began to twitch. His chest erupted with blood as it writhed in agony. Unexpectedly, the elf's torso was severed into pieces that soon fell to the floor. The cavern floor was riddled with blood as were the walls.
Lloyd wiped the blood off his blades and then sheathed them. He looked over at Sheena dusting herself off. "Are you ok?"
Sheena looked at him smiling. "Yeah, thanks." "He's getting more powerful than ever, I hope I can keep up with him…" She picked up the small bag of exsphere and tossed them to Lloyd. He put them in his pocket and they turned and left the cave.
"Hey Sheena, you seem to be getting faster." His comment came out of nowhere.
"Huh? Oh, yeah I guess. I had these cards custom made for our journey. They tap into my agility and increase it quite a bit." She pulled out the black cards and showed them to Lloyd. "You also seem to be getting stronger." It was almost obvious. Lloyd's frame wasn't anything to sneeze at but lately you could tell that his arms were larger. He had been working out the last couple of weeks.
"Oh, it's nothing but thanks." He could tell she was staring at his muscles. He couldn't help but blush a little bit. "Anyway", averting the conversation, "The nearest town is Izoold and from there we can travel to Palmacosta."
"Isn't Palmacosta in ruins?" She remembered the sight of that "tree" as it tore through the city like it was made of thin paper. She trembled at the thought of such enormous power.
"I got word from a friend that they have started to rebuild it and we could always show up and lend a hand." Days ago, he had gotten word from Raine that Palmacosta was being rebuilt and that Neil had survived the attack. He didn't get the chance to reply but thought that he should show up and lend support.
"Alright then, let's head to Izoold", Sheena exclaimed as she started down the trail. Lloyd stopped and looked at her.
"What is this feeling?" He continued to stare at her. "Do I love Sheena?" He looked at her, this time seeing things previously unseen. Sure, he had noticed her beauty before and liked her personality, but now it was as if he was seeing them in a new light.
"Hey if you don't hurry up, I will leave you behind, slowpoke." The sarcastic comment had brought Lloyd right back to reality. He smiled and tried to catch up with Sheena who started running towards town.
They arrived in Izoold exhausted from their racing competition. Sheena decided to turn in for the night and Lloyd went to look for an open port to dock their Elemental Cargo ship. After finding a good sized dock, he took it from the wing pack and left it there for tomorrow. He walked back into the inn.
Sheena was already asleep on one of the beds when he entered the inn. He noticed a small letter on the nightstand but decided against looking at it. Lloyd turned over to look at Sheena, his violet-haired beauty. "She's very cute when she is asleep." He slowly gave Sheena a kiss on her forehead and turn into his own bed. "Goodnight Sheena."
Well chapter two is done. Also Sheena will write letters to Mizuho in a few chapters and they shed a little light on certain things. Expect Genis and Raine in the next chapter. Also a subplot dealing with the main villian is in the next chapter. (dont know when'll update thought) Again please R&R. Thank you.
