And welcome to chapter 4! This chapter is going to be a bit different from the others.

This is a summary of several short moments, which happened during the first month.

I could spend hours describing every single day, but that would be just boring and honestly I don't think it would help the story. Besides I really want that my favourite moment happens in the fifth chapter and that's not possible if I don't do it like that.

Ok, enough talk. Please enjoy!

I do not own the characters or the locations of Tales of Symphonia.

"So you are telling me, that if I want to do that either you or Noishe has to come with me?" Anna looked at Kratos angrily "That's the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said to me!" "It's too dangerous alone" he replied. "Too dangerous? You've got to be kidding! Those ten meters I'm away from the fire can't count as being alone. And even if there were twenty Desians I wouldn't let you come with me!" she said a bit louder "Goddess, I have lost many things in the ranch but not my pride!"

For a while she was looking at him, but then Anna came to the conclusion that she couldn't win this fight. "Fine! Then Noishe will come with me. Although he is a boy too" Angry she walked to the little brook that was flowing nearby. When she made sure that just Noishe had come with her she started to undress. "What the hell is he thinking? Too dangerous! Please! If I would want to, I could talk to him. And you Noishe turn around! You might be an animal but I know you're just as intelligent as a human and you're male."

Noishe seemed to be a bit surprised but turned around. Anna walked into the water and began rather quickly to wash herself. At least he let me do it. I hope he's not getting any more paranoid. She was very soon finished and then tried to get as fast as she could dressed. Anna was nearly finished. She was just pulling down her shirt over her head when she felt that Noishe was touching her back with his nose.

"What the hell are you…" she started, but fell silent when she saw how sad Noishe looked. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked. The big animal pointed with his nose again at her back and whined. "What do you mean? Is something with my…Oh. Do you mean the scars?" The strange dog nodded. Anna knew that her back was covered in ugly scars and marks. She had seen them in her reflection. They looked truly horrible.

"Don't worry! They don't hurt anymore" she said softly while she was pulling her shirt down. But Noishe looked still sorrowful. "Honestly it's fine! You don't have to be sad. I'm not. Okay, I'm not happy about it, but I'm free and that's everything that counts" she explained smiling. She even caressed his forehead, although she was still afraid of him.

Suddenly he licked her face and instead of screaming Anna just laughed. "Okay, okay. I'm glad you're happy again, but please next time you do that warn me." Then Noishe looked at her like he was asking her how to do that. "I have no idea" she answered "But if I do I let you know." Then she smiled at him again. "I guess we should go back or my paranoid savior will lose it." And Noishe looked at her like he was thinking the same thing.

"Ouch! Would you please be more careful? I can take a lot of pain but I'm not made out of stone" she said, while Kratos was treating a cut on her arm. "That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't needled the Desian" he answered calm. Anna sighed and replied "I know and I'm really sorry! Like I said the last thousand times, but you heard me at the ranch. I can't just shut up."

Earlier this day some Desians had found them and had tried to capture her again. They were ordered not to hurt her, but in the moment where one Desian had touched her, she had…well, kicked him in a very delicate spot and not enough Anna had said something quite inappropriate. If it hadn't been for Kratos, her arm would have taken worse damage. "And why aren't you able to stop talking?" he asked slightly annoyed.

"The truth?"

"If you don't mind."

"Because I'm afraid if I stop talking."

"Afraid of what?"

"I'm afraid of them. Of the Desians and Kvar."

"You never seemed to be afraid."

"But I am. I'm scared when I think about the things they already did to me and the things they could. They could take everything away from me. My life and myself. They could break my soul. And that's why I'm always talking, because if I'm talking I haven't got the time to think about these things."

"To be afraid is nothing you should be ashamed of."

And then she smiled faintly. "It's not that I'm ashamed of it. I'm afraid of being afraid, because if I feel fear the Crystal grows more powerful and absorbs a bit of my soul. I rather feel the pain of a cut than the burning of a growing Exsphere."

Anna smiled at him a bit longer and then looked at her arm. "You've finished! Thanks! You were faster than I thought." Then she saw his somehow concerned look. "What? Just because you don't answer my questions doesn't mean I can't answer yours. Besides you wanted the truth."

"It is just a very unusual answer."

"Well, I'm a very unusual person."

"You are indeed."

Anna giggled and answered "Like you were the one to talk. You are the strangest person in this entire world. A Desian Lord, who helps a human escape from the half elves, sounds pretty "unusual" to me."

"…"

"Oh, I didn't want to insult you. Actually it was a compliment."

"You didn't insult me….A compliment?"

"Well, yes. I mean "unusual" isn't bad. In this case it's good. At least your behaviour proves that no one is truly evil at heart. Well, except Kvar."

"How do you mean that?"

"If even a high ranked Lord of the Desians helps an insignificant human, than there is even kindness amongst the Desians. I mean I'm no saint. I hate Kvar and I hate the Desians that attached this thing to my chest, but in a very weird way I think I understand their reasons and that's why I don't think half elves are evil in general."

"You understand their reasons?"

"I guess they made me understand. I was treated…like dirt in the ranch and that's how humans treat half elves. If I would have been treated like this my entire life I would also feel that kind of hatred. But that doesn't excuse what they do in those ranches! No, not at all! They are just as bad as the humans that treated them like that. I somehow understand them, but that doesn't mean I forgive them. I saw too many people die. The organisation you work for has its reasons for hurting people, but I hate it and I think it's evil. But I just hate them and not all half elves."

"So you hate me as well?"

"No, of course not! How could I hate someone who saved my life for now…wait, let me count…three times? Please, to let me hate you, you have to torture me mentally and physically for over a year. Physically I don't see any problem, but after Kvar methods you have to be very creative to torture my mind."

"I'm impressed how you can turn every serious conversation into a joke."

"That's the nicest thing you ever said to me! Thank you!"

"That wasn't really a compliment."

"It wasn't? Sounds like a compliment to me."

"I give it up. You will just twist my words again."

"Awww…but it was just starting to get fun."

Anna looked at the little bridge and said a bit sceptical but mostly frightened "You want me to go over that old, decrepit bridge above a brawly ocean?" "Yes. It is the only way to Izoold." he answered calm.

"But…but…I just…can't."

"You are able to escape from a human ranch but you cannot go over a bridge?"

"You've got that right."

"…If I go first, would you…"

"No way! Then the bridge will collapse right when I'm on it."

"If you go first…"

"But then I don't know if it's safe!"

Now her companion looked somehow desperate, frustrated and annoyed at the same time.

"Noishe could carry you."

Anna looked at him then at Noishe. Now she was even more frightened. He must be kidding!

"I'd rather swim to the other side than ride on Noishe. I'm not riding on something that is able to understand me. I can barely pat him." Noishe looked a bit insulted but right now Anna didn't care.

"…Like I said, that is the only way. The longer we stay here the bigger is the chance that Kvar's Desians will catch up. So would you please go over the bridge?"

"And if there were hundreds of Desians I'm not going over that thing!"

"Is there anything that will convince you that it's safe?"

"No, there's nothing….Hey, what are you doing? What the…?" But before she could do anything about it, he had picked her up and carried her over the bridge.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Anna shouted angrily.

"I'm carrying you over the bridge, since you are unable to pass it by yourself."

"Wait, over the br…" she looked down and saw the ocean below her.

"OH MY GODDESS!" Anna she screamed and suddenly clung to Kratos. "If I survive this I'm going to kill you" she mumbled trembling. He didn't answer. This is embarrassing and insulting at the same time. Well, mostly embarrassing. No, totally embarrassing! Goddess, Anna! It would be so much easier if you would just be little bit braver! You are being carried by a Desian Lord how weird is that…and oddly comfortable.

"You can let go now. We are over the bridge." he said simply. "Oh! Yeah, right" she answered a little bit confused and even blushed when she realised that she was still clinging to him. When she was finally standing on her own feet again she said angry "I should slap you in the face right now!" "And what is holding you back?" he asked and he even sounded a bit curious. "Oh…ähm…well…because…because…Oh, I just don't want to. I would probably hurt myself rather than you" she said still embarrassed "But if you ever do that again you will regret it!"

"There was no other way to get you over the bridge. It wasn't my fault."

"Yes it was! You can't just carry a woman without asking! That's…not very polite."

"I will ask next time."

"No, you won't because there will not be a next time."

"…"

"…But still thanks. I would be still standing on the other side, if it weren't for you."

"…You're welcome.

Please stop! Please let me go! "Leave me alone!" Anna said when she woke up. Another nightmare had disturbed her sleep. Why won't this stop? It has been already three weeks since my escape. Why can't it get any better? She looked at the sky and saw the beautiful stars, which were shining above her. It took her some minutes to realise that her face was wet. I cried. I hope no one heard that.

Anna dried her face. In her dream she had seen the many corpses of the humans at the ranch. Far too many. She felt a light burning in her chest. It wasn't painful just damn annoying. "I hope you are happy now!" she said angry to her Exsphere.

"With whom are you talking?" a voice asked behind her. Startled she turned around and said to Kratos "How often do I have to say that? Don't sneak up on me! Do you want me to die because of a heart attack?" She sighed and asked "Why aren't you sleeping?" "I could ask you the same question." he replied.

"Yeah, you could. I woke up because of a…bad dream. Nothing special really. And why are you still up?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"First of all what a lame excuse and secondly how aren't you able to sleep after such an exhausting day?"

"It wasn't that exhausting."

"Oh right! I always forget that you use a Cruxis Crystal. This travelling must be not exhausting at all for you."

"Not particularly. If it is too much for you we could slow down."

"No, I'm fine. But it's nice that you ask."

"…You look worried."

"I do? Oh, well I was just reminded of how lucky I am. That's all."

"You mean your nightmares?"

"Nightmares? What do you…you mean you know that I…"

"You wake up every night. It's wasn't hard to find out."

"Oh…" Anna silently thanked the darkness, because he couldn't see how her cheeks turned red. So much to letting no one know.

"Why haven't you said anything before?"

"You didn't seem to want to talk about it."

"Well, that's very…considerate."

"…"

"Where is Noishe?" Anna couldn't see him, although he was usually sleeping just beside the campfire.

"He is probably hunting some animals."

"Ahh…okay. Well, then I should try sleep now…and you should too. It's pretty late."

"I'll get enough sleep. Don't worry about that."

"Okay. …Hey, is there any chance that those nightmares will wear off?"

"It will take some time, but they eventually they will."

"Is there actually anything you don't know?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a "no"."

"You will fall if you climb up there." Kratos said, while watching Anna climbing up a huge rock. "Goddess, nothing is going to happen to me. I'm not that clumsy. Besides I want to know if I can see it already" she answered while rolling her eyes. After a few moments she was at the top. And not enough she stood up and tried to spot the village of Izoold.

Now even Noishe seemed to be worried. "Would you please come down again?" Kratos asked. "Yeah, yeah. Just one minute. I'm trying to…Hey, I can see it! At the horizon. It's really, really small, but I can see it! Izoold!" she said excited while pointing in the distance. "We will be there in a few days. And now come down" he told her and he seemed to be quite worried, that she would fall of. "Okay, okay. I'm on my way. You really need to relax" Anna stated when she was finally climbing down again.

But when she was half way down, one of her hands slipped and she fell. And was caught by him. "I told you, you would fall" he said to her. "No, you said I would fall from the top. I was already climbing down" she answered and folded her arms before her chest "There's a difference."

"You would say anything to prove me wrong."

"Well, maybe. But even you can't be always right."

"I can't, but I was right when I told you, you'd fall of."

"Yeah, got it. You're all knowing. Still it wouldn't hurt you to be a little bit less serious."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Give it a try. You'll see that it's fun."

"I'll think about it."

"Okay. Ähm…Kratos?"

"Yes?"

"You can let me down now. I promise I won't fall over my own feet."

"Right" he said and let her down. "That was the first time you forgot something" she meant. "I didn't forget that I was holding you" Kratos answered.

"No, I meant that you forgot that you had to let me down."

"Is there a difference?"

"For a woman there is."

"…"

"Sorry, I'm just teasing you."

"Hmpf…"

Anna just smiled and flattened her clothes. "So…" she started "in a few days we arrive at Izoold?" "If nothing unexpected happens" he answered calm. "Well, then let's hope nothing happens" Anna answered smiling.

If I had only known that in this few days everything and I mean EVERYTHING would change.

Well, this chapter didn't take long and it was so much fun to write.

Reviews are always welcome!