And here comes Chapter 17.

Erm…well, sorry it took me so long. And to be honest it would have taken me even longer to post this if not for this comment by Megusta(Guest) "Y U NO UPDATE THIIISSSS? :[" It scared me a little…

Anyway…

You know I've just realized that Anna and Kratos are traveling together for only a bit more than three months now. I needed 17 chapters for that. Oh dear…I need a time skip. But not just yet. I have plans for the next two to three chapters. I'm really looking forward to it. To be honest I've waited quite long to get to this certain point in the story.

But since you have no idea what I'm talking about I'll just get on with the story.

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

The hug was long and firm. Anna actually had problems breathing properly. But she remained silent, till Phaidra ended the embrace herself. "And you are sure that you want to go? You could stay with us for some more days… or weeks. We don't mind" the elderly woman said. Anna smiled but shook her head. "No, I have to go. But thanks for the offer. I really appreciate it" she answered. Phaidra looked at her for some moments. She seemed to be quite worried.

"You don't need anything else? I could surely…"

"No! You gave me more than enough, Phaidra. Actually you gave me too much. I can't say how grateful I am. I can never ever repay you for that." Yes, she had given Anna far too much. Not just a place to stay and treatment, but also a bag full of things (mostly clothes with the explanation, that a pretty woman like her should have some things to wear). She had even found money in it and her attempts to return it had been useless. Phaidra had simply ignored her. She was too kind for her own good.

The blond woman replied softly "You don't have to repay me. Just promise me that you'll be careful. Don't get yourself killed and stay away from the Desians and from monsters and…."

"I got it, Phaidra! I'll be careful. Don't worry!" Anna said and smiled.

"Oh!" the woman hugged her again "I'm going to miss you! It was wonderful to have you here! Even if it was only for a short time."

"Thanks for everything! I'll never forget that!"

"If you ever happen to be near Iselia again, please visit us! I would love to introduce you to my children someday."

"Yeah! I would like to meet them too. I promise you to visit you if I get the chance."

Phaidra didn't let go of her. "Ahm…you're crushing my ribs."

"Sorry!" the woman apologized and let Anna go.

"It's a pity Jonathan can't be here!" Phaidra said and sighed. Her husband had his hands full with dealing with the tourists and pilgrims. He hadn't had the time to stay longer to say goodbye to her.

"I said goodbye to him in the morning." It had been a rather moving event to say farewell to her savior.

"Still…"

Anna smiled at the elderly woman. "I'll leave now. Again thank you for everything you did!"

Phaidra smiled back at her. "Goodbye and may Martel guide you!"

"Goodbye!" the young woman said. She hesitated for a split second, before she said kindly "And I'm sure your cousin will make it! She'll bring us salvation, you'll see." Then she turned around, waved Phaidra goodbye and went away. I'll definitely come back here! Someday…

For about five minutes she was walking through the forest all by herself. It was a warm summer day and the birds were chirping. She felt like the only being in the entire world. A feeling she enjoyed for a while. However, it made her nervous after some time. But eventually she heard a noise behind her and she hit the ground only seconds later. "Ouch!" she complained and tried to get up.

The woman sighed a bit annoyed, when she looked at Noishe. "Seriously you don't have to do that every time we meet again. Just startling me in a normal way would be more than enough" she said to the Protozoa. He licked her face gently. Now the young woman hugged him and said smiling "But it's still nice to see you!" His tail started to wag. She could almost feel his excitement.

"So" Anna got up again "I suppose that my angelic companion is nearby, right?" The Protozoa nodded. Before she could even turn around, the mentioned companion said "Noishe ran off without me. He couldn't wait any longer." Noishe nodded energetic. She turned around and answered smiling brightly "Really? I can't imagine how that must feel."

The young woman looked at him for a moment and then she couldn't suppress it any longer and did the same thing Noishe had done only moments ago. Well, except for the knocking down part.

She sighed happily. "By the way I wouldn't mind if you would behave a bit like Noishe" she kissed his cheek softly "But I guess I shouldn't complain. After all I missed your gloomy behavior the most."

"I do remember that you are always criticizing my gloomy behavior" he answered calm.

"Know what, Kratos? The things about you that drive me crazy sometimes are secretly the things I love most about you. But most of the time they just drive me insane" the young woman explained smiling. Surprised she made a step backwards and looked at him.

"Hey! You look normal again!" she said referring to his clothes. The Seraph wore his Cruxis outfit again.

"Normal?" he asked slightly surprised.

"Yeah, normal. I mean I'm used to these clothes" she replied lightly "Besides they suit you." And make you look even more handsome than you already are the woman completed in her thoughts and blushed slightly.

She noticed his…almost amused expression.

"What?" she asked curious.

"Nothing important" he answered. That answer just made her even more curious.

"Come on! Tell me!"

"It was nothing" the Seraph replied "We should go now."

The woman sighed. "Changing the subject like that is mean! But…" she brushed some hair out of her face "like always you are right."

They started walking, closely followed by a happy Noishe. "So where are we going?" she asked, barely able to hide her excitement.

"To a House of Salvation" he replied.

"Why?"

"There is no special reason."

She narrowed her eyes. "Seriously? No reason at all?" the young woman asked skeptical "Since when do you do something without a good reason?"

"Haven't I done that before in the past?"

"No…actually not. You are the kind of person that needs a reason for everything" she answered "For example your nonexistent sleeping habits. You don't see a reason in sleeping so you don't do it. And that's pretty much how you deal with everything else."

Her jaw dropped, in the moment she saw him…smiling. On a normal person it wouldn't have been a big deal, but on him it was, even if it was barely more than the hint of a smile.

"What…what are you…sm-smiling about?" she asked a bit surprised and slightly confused.

"It's nothing."

"Nothing? Whatever it is it's enough to make you smile. That's not nothing! That's a miracle!" the young woman answered.

"Your definition of a miracle is surely strange."

"Excuse me! You are a four thousand year old Seraph. You're a walking miracle" Anna replied, still a bit confused by his smile. He looked so…different with it and this difference made it a bit hard for her to really concentrate on the conversation.

"I'm not more of a miracle than any other human."

"If you only knew how wrong you are…" she answered and rolled her eyes. Anna knew that her companion was unable to accept any kind of compliment. No, actually it was more like he didn't believe that there was anything good about him. A fact that made him even more amazing in Anna's eyes, but that was something she kept to herself.

"Hey, stop that!" the young woman said suddenly "Stop switching the subject!"

"If I remember correctly you were the one who changed the subject."

"Very funny. I wanna know why you smiled…or rather why you are smiling!" she demanded.

"I have no special reason" he answered.

"Kratos! Stop using that kind of answer! You know that that's not an answer at all!"

"It is" was his calm response.

The woman groaned frustrated. "Okay! Fine! ...I'll give in. This time you win…" she admitted sighing and she really wasn't happy about that.

Eventually she said to Noishe "Something's wrong with him. Usually our conversation don't end…" she looked at the Seraph "…like this." The Protozoa simply barked, sounding quite happy.

The woman sighed, but it sounded content. "So back to the original topic. Why are we going to a House of salvation? It seems to me a bit odd, since you kind of avoided them in the past" she asked the Seraph.

"Because the routes pilgrims take are usually safer and Cruxis would never try to…attack on a road like this. They are not fond of attracting attention." It wasn't hard for her to hear his concern. Well, he wasn't really trying to hide it.

"Knew you had a reason" Anna said slightly proud. But after some moments she decided to pick up a more serious subject.

"Let's assume that Cruxis…doesn't act like you think. What…could happen?" the woman asked carefully.

At first he didn't seem like he would answer her question, but then he said "If that would happen, I had to face…some angels."

"Angels?" She hadn't expected that. The angels of Cruxis were for her nothing more than pitiable creatures, doomed to live forever without a soul or a single thought.

He nodded.

"How…dangerous are they?" she managed to ask.

"They are more powerful than Desians, but not much of a threat" he answered.

"You say that to everyone that is trying to kill you, Kratos" the woman replied and rolled her eyes "Doesn't really make it easier not to be worried about you."

"You don't have to be concerned about me, Anna" he said calm, but he tried to sound convincing.

"I'm trying to believe that myself, but it isn't really working. I'm always worried about you and considering the fact that Cruxis is pursuing us, I think my concerns are justified." Couldn't think of a better reason…

"And you are only worried about my wellbeing?" he asked.

"Well, mostly. I mean I can't say that I'm not worried about Noishe, but you are always putting yourself in danger. Remember Izoold? I nearly died because of worrying about you" the woman answered and noticed Noishe's expression. She had gotten on his nerves quite a bit.

"You did?" he asked and tilted his head almost curious.

"Yeah, I did" the young woman admitted silently "I mean you were gone for such a long time…" she mumbled the last words slightly embarrassed "But it was nothing compared to some days ago. Believing you were gone was like…hell." She blushed slightly, when she noticed that his look was resting on her.

"You don't need to be concerned about me" he assured her eventually.

"Well, I do no matter what you say" she glanced aside and mumbled quite silently "Especially since I'm not worth the trouble."

"You are mistaken, Anna. You are" the Seraph answered calm. The young woman flinched and her cheeks turned crimson red.

"How did you…" she asked, but fell silent again. She groaned and said annoyed "Right. Angel-senses. Forgot about them." The red color vanished only slowly from her face.

"What I was trying to say…" she started again "was that I have every reason to worry about you. After all you put yourself in danger. And the fact that Cruxis is going to send some angels to take you back isn't really a comforting thought."

"I assure you, those angels don't pose a threat" the man said and the way he did that, made her believe him…for a second.

"We can discuss this all day, but it we'll never agree" the young woman replied and sighed. It was no use. He would never be able to convince her that she didn't have to worry. How couldn't she worry? The organization that was ruling both worlds was trying to hunt them down with angels! Angels…she pondered.

"Kratos? How do angels look like?" Anna asked all of a sudden and her look was a strange mixture of seriousness and curiosity.

"What?" her companion replied slightly surprised and Noishe looked amazed too. He whined a bit confused.

She bit her lip and answered "Well…I don't really know how they look. I never thought about it, because I had no reason to. But now…I mean I doubt that the pictures of angels I've seen so far are…accurate. The only real angels I've seen are you and Yuan. And you two don't really…are recognizable as angels."

Silence spread between, like always when Anna had picked up a topic that was directly connected to Cruxis' crimes. She knew that the chances of getting an answer were quite slim and usually the woman tried to avoid those kinds of question, but she just had to know. To her surprise the Seraph answered only some moments later.

"The images the Church of Martel uses are actually not far away from the truth. They look like normal half-elves with wings. But they are a completely different species."

She looked at him with wide open eyes. He rose on eyebrow a bit confused.

"Why are you looking at me like this?"

"They have…They have wings?" she managed to say obviously quite surprised.

"Yes, they have. Why does that surprise you?" the Seraph answered.

"Out of all the things the Church says about angels, I thought the…wings are the most unrealistic part. Wings…"she said still a bit confused "You mean with feathers and stuff?"

He nodded.

"All of them?"

He nodded again.

The woman looked at him for a while longer. Then she said "Seriously…wings! Who would have expected that?" A second later a new question came into her mind. But even though she had opened her mouth already to ask, she managed to stop herself. Anna knew that that question could get her into trouble or at least it would cause the most awkward and uncomfortable silence.

Since she had decided to not say anything else, silence spread between them anyway, but it wasn't really uncomfortable. It was a stillness that didn't need to be filled. However, usually Anna would have broken it nonetheless, because she hated silence more than anything else (or rather she hated how boring it was), but right now she didn't care. She was busy wondering about that question.

Does…he have wings too? I mean he's a Seraph and that is basically just a very powerful angel. But Kratos and…wings? Come on! That just can't be true…On the other hand wouldn't it be weird if an especially powerful angel hadn't wings? But just look at him! He doesn't have wings! If he had, it would be pretty obvious. Although…he's a special kind of angel, so it would be only logical if he had special kind of wings. Doesn't the Chosen One become an angel too? And have you ever heard of a Chosen with wings? She only becomes a vessel, tough, so it's not the same. But Spiritua is always portrayed as a winged angel.

Oh if I would only have the courage to ask him. Although…he probably wouldn't answer me anyway and to be honest, the question alone sounds quite ridiculous. "Do you have wings?" Yep, sounds pretty stupid to me. But…

"Kratos? I'm going to ask you something now and you have to promise me to answer it honestly" she said after five more minutes. She regretted her words before she had even ended the sentence, but her curiosity had been too strong. Like always. I should work on that.

"I usually answer your questions honestly, but I promise" he responded calm. Anna had the feeling that he already knew, what she was about to ask, but she wasn't really sure. And right now she was too busy figuring out how to ask him, to care.

"Okay…ahm…so…I'd…" she mumbled and looked at the ground. Spit it out!

"So..ahm I wondered…if…well, if you have wings…" the young woman asked growing quieter with every word and blushing.

The response didn't come right away. Just like she had expected. The question was just too weird. After a minute she hoped that he hadn't heard her, but she doubted it. And then…

"I have" he answered sounding just as calm as always.

Well, I was really looking forward to this particular scene.

Next chapter is going to be fun!

Thanks for reading (and waiting) and please review!