Max
I stared at Lloyd and Genis, then at Fang to see if he saw them too. He was staring back at me, and had a confused look on his face.
We shared a glance. "Is that…" Fang nodded.
But Angel grinned like nothing was wrong and walked up to the two boys. "Hello!" She chirped.
Fang and I walked up cautiously behind her. Lloyd and Genis smiled back at her.
"Hey," Lloyd said to Angel. Then he looked up at me. I noticed that his clothes were dirty and his face was smudged with dirt.
Lloyd's pretty cute, I thought to myself. My eyes flicked to Fang guiltily. God Max, snap out of it. Lloyd's a video game character. Angel giggled in the back of my mind, but I ignored her. This has to be a dream. That's it, I'm dreaming.
It's not a dream Maximum, my Voice said to me. I ignored it.
"Are you guys alright?" Lloyd asked. "We saw you all get up from the ground."
"Yeah, we're fine." We just woke up in a fake world and half my flock is missing. No, I'm not freaking fine. "What happened to you guys though?"
Lloyd looked down at his feet. Genis bit his lip.
This is right at the beginning isn't it? Where the designs burn down their town or something.
"The desians attacked our town and burnt a lot of it down." Genis explained. "We were blamed and banished."Called it!
"Why would it be your fault?" Angel asked sweetly, even though she already knew.
Lloyd shrugged. "Well, we were messing around the ranch just yesterday, so they punished the whole town for it."
"I'm sorry." I said out of sympathy.
Lloyd shrugged again.
"Are you guys heading to Triet?" Fang asked a few moments later to break the silence.
The two boys both perked up. "Yeah!" Lloyd said, a bit overenthusiastically if you ask me. "We were going to ask you, have you seen a few friends of ours? A blond girl my age, a woman that looks like Genis here, and an obnoxious guy in purple?" Genis rolled his eyes when Lloyd described Kratos.
I shook my head. "No, sorry." They both deflated a bit.
"Oh. Well, where are you guys headed?" Lloyd asked.
Go with them. The Voice told me.
Why should I? They're video game characters. I shot back.
Tales of Symphonia is not just a video game, Maximum. He (she?) said back calmly. Besides, going with them will lead you to the rest of the flock.
"Max!"
I jumped at Fang's voice. "What?" I looked around, and everyone was staring at me.
"Oh, sorry. Zoned out for a second. But we're headed to Triet too." If the flock might be there, that's where we're going. Fang raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged.
Genis smiled. "Cool. We'll go ahead and go together then."
Angel grinned, making anyone smile back. "Great!"
We walked off towards the desert together. "I'm Lloyd by the way," he introduced, having no idea we already knew that. "And the little shrimp over there is Genis."
Genis glared at him. Angel giggled. "I'm Angel, that's Fang, and then that's Max." She gestured to both of us.
Angel, I thought. Why did you use real names?
Max, what's the harm?
I sighed. Lloyd walked up close to my side. He was just about my height. "So where do you guys live?"
I mentally cringed. "Um…"
Luin, the Voice whispered in the back of my mind.
"Luin," I repeated. "We take supplies to different towns. We were taking some to Iselia when we met you guys."
Genis stared at me. "If you were on your way there, then where are the supplies?" Stupid Genis and his brain…
"We were on our way back, she meant." Fang said from the other side of me.
"Oh," Lloyd said. Then he grinned at me. "That must be pretty cool, seeing all of those different places."
I couldn't help but grin back. "Yeah, it's great," I lied.
Fang made a noise in the back of his throat and laced his fingers through mine. I gave him a weird look that he ignored.
About a half an hour of more walking, and we made it to the desert. I was aching to just take off running and whip out my wings, but that might raise some red flags with Lloyd and Genis.
It turns out Genis is just as much a know-it-all, and Lloyd is just as stupid as in the game. But they were still pretty nice and were funny to watch. But they're still just video game characters. And I'm not going to join them on their little journey. All we're going to do is find the rest of the flock, and then find out how to get back our world.
We could see Triet on the horizon when we were attacked by monsters.
Those monsters just happened to be a large group of snakes. Lloyd grinned as he saw them heading towards us in the sand.
He pulled out his wooden swords. "Piece of cake!" He said and ran straight into the pack. Genis started to cast. I bit my lip.
Not only do I hate snakes, but the two boys are probably expecting me to use my sword. That I have no idea how to use. But Fang and Ang ran right with Lloyd, so I swallowed my fear and ran after them. I mean, it's a sword. Just hack and slash right?
Yeah, it's a lot harder than it seems. I killed one right off by chopping off its head. But most of them would slither out of the way right under me. Luckily, I was quick so none of them bit me. They were a pain, but I did get a couple of them dead.
To me, the best snake is a dead snake.
Genis shot some fire balls to burn a few to crisps (I was almost hit by one though), Lloyd was doing just fine, Angel was doing okay, but she had to get closer to them with her dagger. Fang was dominating with his big ass sword.
We finished off the last of the snakes quickly and left their dead bodies lying in the sand. I looked over the four of them.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked. My eyes went to a deep cut on Lloyd's leg.
He followed my glance. "It's not that bad. I don't think any venom got in," he said.
Angel frowned in thought; I opened my mouth to talk, but instead watched her walk over to Lloyd. She bent down in the sand and closed her eyes, murmuring something under her breath, and then,
"First aid!"
I stared as green light came from Angel's hands and healed the gash on Lloyd's leg. Fang and I shared a glance, but Genis and Lloyd acted like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Lloyd grinned. "Hey, you're a healer!"
Angel smiled. "Yup!"
We went on walking to Triet. "A healer?" Fang muttered to me.
I shook my head. "I have no idea."
Another half an hour of walking, and we finally arrived at Triet. My feet were killing me, my wings ached, and my stomach was growling.
As we walked into the plaza, I paused. "So, who's hungry?"
Angel's hand shot up. "Me!"
"Well, I guess," Lloyd said.
Genis stared at him. "You guess? You were just complaining about how hungry you were just before we got here!"
Lloyd glared. "Shut up Genis."
Then we walked around the stores to find one that sold food (we also saw a Colette sized hole in one of walls). Lloyd bought some fish and bread, and we started to walk back to the shaded area to eat.
"Hey! You kids!" A man called out to us from his store.
"Yeah?" Lloyd said.
I wasn't as nice. "What do you want?"
"Come over here!"
Lloyd started to walk over, and we all followed behind him.
"What is it?" I asked. "We're kind of hungry."
He gestured to his store of weapons. "Well, as you can see, I'm a blacksmith."
"Yeah…" Genis said.
"Why do we care?" I asked. Fang nudged me in the ribs with his elbow.
The man ignored me. "Well, I can see that your weapons are a bit…outdated."
Outdated? I looked down at my sword. I just got this this morning…
The blacksmith continued. "And with the right products, I would be happy to upgrade them for you, free of charge."
"Where would we get the products?" Lloyd asked.
"Sometimes from monsters, or occasionally desians."
We all shared glances. "Um, no thanks, we're gonna go," I said. The man grabbed my arm as we walked away and smiled.
"Oh, please, it's not as bad as it sounds-."
"Yeah, no."
"Please I insist-."
"Can you let go of me?"
"If you just listen-."
"BACK OFF CREEPER!" I snatched my arm back from him and we all ran off to the shaded area.
After that disturbing encounter, we sat in the shaded area with Lloyd's dog (?) and ate fish sandwiches. I'm not a big fish person, but I've learned not to be picky. When we finished, Lloyd and Genis wanted to ask around about Colette, so we decided to help. Even though the three of us knew we'd have no luck.
Of course, we had no luck, but we did get to see Lloyd's wanted poster and get a good laugh.
The five of us met back up in the patio area.
"Any luck?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Lloyd and Genis looked disappointed. "No."
Angel tried to cheer them up. "Don't worry, we'll have to see them eventually."
Lloyd smiled. "Yeah I-." A voice cut him off.
"There he is! Lloyd Irving!"
We all whipped around. In the entry way were a handful of desians, armed with crossbows and whips. Maybe meeting in the patio wasn't the best idea with a wanted criminal…
Immediately Lloyd and Genis drew their weapons and Fang, Angel and I followed suit. The desians charged into us. Civilians screamed and ran for cover.
One desian whipped their whip at me, and I caught it easily with my sword. I twisted it out of his grip and ran forward, stabbing him through the stomach with my sword. It made an unsettling squelch noise. The man gagged and fell to the ground as I pulled my sword out. My stomach rolled as I stared at the body.
I had killed erasers before…but they weren't really people…
No. None of this is real. I need to focus.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw some desians ganging up on Fang. I immediately ran over to cover his back. We stood back to back fighting, just like always.
A few minutes later and all the desians lay in their pool of blood on the ground. I avoided looking at them and ignored my churning stomach.
Lloyd was panting slightly. "Whew…that was close."
"Maybe next time we-."
I was cut off this time. A bolt of lighting shot out at Lloyd. He screamed as it hit his back and collapsed to the ground.
"Lloyd!" I gasped.
"Max!" Fang called out.
I looked at his shocked expression, and then screamed as I was electrocuted and collapsed.
Um, funny story, I finished this about a month ago, but I was going to revise it, and then I forgot about it until now…whoopsies.
Review anyways?