Disclaimer at the bottom.

Dirk, the dwarf

The Desians had left a while ago, but we-- as in Kratos and I-- still couldn't move. He was in too much pain to do so, while, in my case, I was still trying to put the pieces together and figure something out.

Then, a bright light surrounded us and he appeared.

Yggdrasil approached his former master as a small child, pretty much like his old gentle and caring side, gone for so long. He nearedKratos and whispered something I couldn't hear, despite my enhanced senses.

The man didn't seem to hear him, so he tried it again and again.

Still no response.

Yggdrasil was growing tired of that. He simply warped away, the dull body hanging from his right shoulder.

I let a sigh of relief, realizing I had stopped breathing since finding the destroyed hideout.

Then, a soft cry finally reached my ears. Lloyd!

I jumped the cliff and unfurled my wings to ease the fall. Anna's irregular intakes of air were there, growing fainter till it was alarmingly weak. I quickly located them and put to use my healing arts. "Resurrection!" I shouted.

Resurrection... the spell Martel was developing along Master Boltzman and I... if we had finished it in time, she'd never... no, I have to concentrate on saving these three!

---

Anna's breath had normalized, but she and her son were still unconscious. Noishe's wounds were mostly cured, but he'd probably never forget what he'd witnessed that night--those were the true scars, the ones that marred the soul, stained the heart and attached their existence into the very core, to the point of madness. They took my friend, my brother in law. The Protozoan'd never be the same and I was sure neither Anna or infant Lloyd would.

I placed the woman on the Protozoan's back and carried Lloyd towards Iselia. On our way, we found a dwarf. "Hello, could you please help us?" I called. Their Vows were well known around the world because they were followed rigorously by all those withdwarven blood. Or almost all, at least.

He immediately turned, "What's happened to you?" His brows furrowed in worry.

"Desians", I spat.

"I see..." He then noticed the exsphere. "Why is she using a crestless exsphere?"

"The Desians placed it on her. Could you make a key crest for her? I can pay well."

"No need to. I can't charge you for that. Feel free to rest at my house as long as you need."

"Thank you." Yuan bowed.

"Dwarven Vow number two: Never abandon someone in need."

---

"Here it is." Dirk placed the key crest on Anna's pale hand. "She should be back to normal in no time!"

"I can't thank you enough for this, mister Dirk."

"Just Dirk is okay. By the way, you aren't the young one's father, are you?"

"No, that would be my friend. I'm just taking care of his family for the time being."

"May I ask what happened to him?"

Yuan's face darkened, "He's not among us anymore..."

"Oh, I 'm sorry."

Their somber conversation was interrupted by a groan. They both turned to look at Anna's awaking form. "Where..."

"Anna?"

"Lord Yuan?" She asked, surprise evident in her rushed salute.

Face devoid of emotions, he proceeded, "Do you know where you are?"

"No..." She analyzed her surroundings. "This doesn't look like a base."

"You're correct. What was the last thing you did?"

"I was handing my report about the Luin Ranch... oh no! Did I do anything wrong, sir?"

Skilfully hiding the shock, he replied, "No, that was alright. Just... don't you remember doing anything else afterwards?"

"Should I?"

End Chapter

If the story sucks or people don't read, I'll have to rewrite. Not that I really mind rewriting to improve, it's just that it can take some time. So... review, please?...

The chapter actually ended in a cliff! Wow, never thought I'd do that. This one's short even for my standards, though. So, extra big useless author's note ahead [with stupid making-off!]! You don't really have to read it, unless you want to know how this fic is written. Or how a psyco fangirl mind works during Holidays.

Thanks for reviewing/alerting/faving the story!

-

I should call someone to help me in here. Lessee...

Martel, I summon thee!

Martel: What?

Could you please be my muse in this fic?

Martel: Okay... but I'm not available all the time. I have a tree to guard, remember?

Oh yeah. Well, I (unfortunately) have other things to do too, we just have to sync!

Sync: *appears in poof of smoke* What-

Omigosh! KYAA! *tackles*

Sync: Let me go, you stupid fangirl! As if Ariet-

I heard it right? You're lovey dovey with Arietta? *grins for no reason*

Y-you didn't hear anything! *storms out of writer's mind*

Martel: children... By the way, the author doesn't own the 'Tales of' series (that includes ToS and ToA), Namco does. She owns what she owns and that's so little she could barely buy a copy of ToS DotNW and a few other games for her self-given Christmas present. So there's no money in case you sue her. She does have some lychee candies stocked somewhere in her kitchen. If I'm not mistaken, they just expired last month--you won't want to eat those.

Hmmm... things could always get worse if he fell in love with Tear's bro... that'd be creepy. Arietta is cute. And she's a female. But Ion sure is feminine too... Argh! Dizzy...

Martel: What? Are you still fangirling over Sync?

No, just thinking about pairings... SyncxArietta, IonxSync(???) or SyncxVa-

Martel: *runs away*

Hey! Wait!

Martel: I'm gettin outta here now, you creepy fangirl from the deepest parts of Niflheim!

Come back, pleeeease?

Martel: NO WAY!!!!

Tada-dada!

The author succesfully scared Martel to life (death?)! 20Exp

Level up!

-5 HP

+10MP

+0,01 WP (Writing Power)

+5 FP/CP (Fangirling/Creepy Points)

Oh, FP/CP basically serves to scare people away and do creepy laughs at random moments.

This uber stupid little making-off of sorts was made to relieve the authoress from the angst in this chappy. She didn't remove it before posting cause she's lazy.

But if she's lazy, why is she writing explanations instead of deleting?

Anyway.

Seeyabyebyegottago!