Alaia Skyhawk: And so the beginning of everything weaves into the whole that is to come. Time for the next important appearance to occur.
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I don't own Tales of Symphonia so please don't sue me. I do however own Krishka, Dallinius (Dalli), Aluran, the Alurannai and any OCs, except Sanaro and Annule, who belong to Mr Who 2123, Mika and Fiuras, who belong to WingedWithFireyMana, and Gaea Silverleaf, who belongs to Sparkling Moon Phoenix, so please don't steal them...
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Chapter 6: Help for the Besieged
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He wasn't sure how many weeks it had been, how long since his newly created Centurions had gone out into the world and begun the task of spreading and balancing the mana for him. Time had lost all meaning to him now, numb in his continued exhaustion. The respite he'd had in those initial days had been short lived, the monsters and his Centurions managing at first, but their stamina dwindling under the strain of doing what he himself had done so absently in the time before. What he had had the innate ability to do with ease, they were forced to learn and do with only barest experience. Time... all the creation of the Monsters and Centurions had done was buy time, and both he and the Tree knew it.
Ratatosk closed his eyes, despair in his voice as he spoke to the Tree.
"I've failed, Mother... Even with the Centurions and the Monsters, I can't control the mana and the door at the same time... If I correct the mana myself to help them the door will open, and I'm not sure I've the strength now to close it again..."
There might once have been fear in his voice, but now his exhaustion ran too deep for him to be aware of it if he did. His childish innocence had been shattered, crushed beneath the task of keeping the demons out of his world.
Far off in the distant meadow, the Tree also despaired that its child had to suffer so much. How were the Elves to know that here on this world, a world devoid of mana, a distortion in space existed that led to a realm of beings to which mana was poison... How also were they to know that the introduction of mana on this side would cause those beings to seek a way through to subvert and corrupt this threat to their existence?
Coming to its decision, the Tree spoke to the Spirit.
I have pondered such this past moon, and believe I may have a solution. Hold fast, My Child, and I will create one final force to aid you. This will be my last effort, for even I begin to tire after creating so much so swiftly. Hold the door, and help will come soon.
Ratatosk nodded tiredly, too exhausted to really take note of what had been said. All hope had been crushed for him, crushed like the dreams of breezes and sunshine that had been his life before the rift had spilled taint into the world.
In its meadow the Tree silently cried, even as it reached out to do something it deeply regretted it had to do. It reached out to the nearby elven town, and sent its voice shimmering through the air causing all in the town to stop and look in the direction of the hill where it stood.
Descendants of Derris Kharlan, leave this place! Leave for there is something I would do that your presence would endanger. I do not ask this lightly of thee, but it must be done, and swiftly! Go south, to the hills and plains beyond the forest borders! You must hurry!
All of the elves stood there in shock, confused and puzzled by the command. There would be no denying it though, for the Tree's presence seemed to begin looming over them, pressing down on them in its urgency... It would not be taking no for an answer.
Children began to cry, while parents rushed to pack everything possible into wing packs. In the space of an hour fifteen thousand elves departed southwards, leaving behind them a town of vacant and empty buildings whose gardens would soon be obscured by the grasses of the plains they'd been hewn from. The Tree watched them go, full of regret. It had forced them to move at a time they'd not been really ready to move beyond the meadow. It also knew they would worry for it, for without them to hold off the worse of the world's weather the winter storms could seriously harm it... The Tree, however, had planned for that.
It waited, waited until a full week had passed and the elves were far beyond the range to sense what it was about to do. Sure that no external influence would harm its new creations, the Tree reached into the earth around its hill and conjured forth a ring of around two hundred strangely leafless trees. Each tree bore a single immense bud within its crown, and one by one those buds opened into cream coloured blossoms from which each a single figure stood tall.
The figures all turned, all of them appearing identical to the Humans created by Origin but for two things. All of them bore green tendrils on shoulders, elbows, and the sides of their faces, and all of them had luminescent crystalline segmented wings. All of their eyes remained on the Tree as it began to sing the Song of Bonding, tying them all to its own spirit before commanding them to take flight.
Go my children! Fly swift to where I would have yea place the Sentinels I have created. Guide them in distributing the mana so that life may continue to live on this world! Go, young Alurannai! Hurry!
All of this new race, the Alurannai, stooped to pick up a seed that had been inside the flower with them. Each of them then took flight and scattered to the winds, all but one who by some unknown impulse remained where he was until all of the other Alurannai had faded from sight among the clouds in the skies.
Pale amber eyes gazed uncertainly at the Tree, as the man uttered his first tentative words.
"Ratarani? What is it you wish of me?"
The Tree seemed to sigh, a hint of regret as it spoke.
Go. Plant your Sentinel on an island far to the south-east. You will find a rift there, enter it, and lend your strength and support to the one you find in the depths... This is a deep burden I place on you, dear Yasin... that and a fate not of your choosing. Tell no one of it, it must remain secret, and may you forgive me when the import of that fate becomes clear to you.
Yasin stared with wide eyes, sensing that he'd been told something very important to his future, but as yet too new to life to understand just what it was. He hesitated one last moment, before lurching skywards into shaky flight that improved as he grew accustomed to it.
"I will do as you ask, Ratarani."
He disappeared to the south-east, leaving the Tree alone as it created one last flower, high amongst the eaves of its own branches. When that azure blossom opened a man stepped out to gaze with solemn eyes at the world he was fated to watch over, fated to do so unawares that another had also just been given that task.
He stood there waiting, until the Tree whispered.
Go east, my Son, to where the meadow's edge meets the trees. Walk that perimeter, and cast the power of your people's Bonds with me into the skies to hold back the ravages of the elements. If I am sustain this world, I will need protection from the seasons. Go, Narim Brethil Aurion, and complete this task with much haste!
"As you wish, Mother."
The man, the first Narim of his race, took to the skies as was bidden, while behind his departing form the Tree fell silent as it considered all that it had just done.
I create them to bear a burden, some with a harsher one than others. My son, Brethil, you and your descendants will be the Safeguard should I meet my demise in the future... And Yasin, like you your fellow alurannai may by their choosing escape the decay of time... but for you I have already made that decision... For the sake of the future, it had to be done... I'm sorry...
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The lands fell away beneath him, his glimmering golden wings propelling him swiftly upon the winds as he arrowed to the southeast. He didn't know why, but he was certain there was something odd. He felt like he was somehow stood still, while the rest of the world raced by around him. That utter stillness in his innermost centre confused him, and he just didn't know why.
Frowning at these strange thoughts, Yasin continued on this ordained path given to him. He knew not why he had been created, nor what reason was behind the urgent need to plant the seed he carried in the place he'd been told to. All he knew was that his name was Yasin, and that he was Alurannai... all else was a mystery to him.
Curious about this world into which he'd been born, he gazed down at the lands below and regarded them with wonder until they were eventually replaced by sea. He kept flying, smiling to himself in young awe at starlight glinting off waves when night came, and kept wondering as two more days and nights passed him by. By then he began to feel his destination calling to him, or rather the seed in his grip. The Tree's root it was destined to grow near was like a beacon in the distance, a beacon of living fire that surged up through the seed in the moments after he planted it in the ground of the island to which he'd been directed.
Stepping back as the Sentinel's branches shot skywards, Yasin gazed upon it's arrow-shaved silvery leaves even as he heard it begin to sing in joy of its life and purpose, mana pouring forth from it drawn from the Tree's root deep below the earth. This was what it was born to do, and even now he could sense the rejuvenation of the area around it. The land seemed to sigh in relief, but that sense did not include a strange flaw he could sense nearby.
Turning away from the Sentinel he followed that sense of strangeness, followed it all the way to the edge of a vast circular depression marked the earth. At its centre some miles away, he could see a gleam of white light, one that proved to be a rift in the air when he flew down to investigate. It was the rift the Tree had spoken of, the one he must enter and give help to the person he would find within.
Fearless in his ignorance, Yasin stepped into the rift and floated down through the air beyond, once again gazing around with the wonder of one new to existence. Thin tendrils of the Tree's roots twined downwards, tendrils he knew would one day be mighty stems thought which mana would flow and pulse like a river. For now though they were tender and young, much like him, and they shivered with the promise of new growth to come.
Silvery mists that were thick higher up began to thin, Yasin now going wide-eyed at the new sight he beheld before him when he reached the bottom of the rift.
Massive bones littered the floor of the rift, empty eye sockets staring out like an omen of what had happened here. He could sense that this place of purity had once been tainted, and that that taint sought to regain this place from somewhere nearby.
He fluttered his golden wings, once again following the faint tug of something different from the rest of what was here. It didn't take long for the vast golden wall to come into view, and the sphere embedded in its surface his obvious destination when he spotted the small opening in its side.
Now, for the first time in his days' long life, he felt the instinct to be cautious, edging slowly down the walkway within the sphere. The passage was only short, soon opening into a chamber whose far side was dominated by a golden arch and a filigree structure that held nine coloured orbs suspended. That sight held him transfixed at first, until with some surprise he spotted a green haired figure huddled at the base of it.
Ratatosk flinched, the nearby man's gasp waking him from his sleep. Blearily he turned and looked in the direction of the alurannai man, before those eyes widened in fear and he shuffled backwards against the base of the seal.
"Who's there?!"
Yasin tilted his head, confused. Why was a young boy here all alone? Was this boy the one who was supposed to help? Thinking it over, Yasin could only conclude that the boy was the one.
"I.. I am Yasin Perelir... of the Alurannai. New born Offspring Race of the Giant Tree... It... sent me here, and told me to help and support the person I'd find."
His speech had been hesitant, as needed knowledge had risen up from the store of it imprinted deep in the Alurannai man's mind. Ratatosk didn't seem to notice though, it didn't matter given the hope those words brought to his eyes.
"...It... It sent you to be with me? So I wouldn't be alone?"
Yasin thought about it again, before nodding slowly.
"I think so... I'm new to life, and the Tree hasn't given me much knowledge yet other than what I am and my name."
Ratatosk smiled sadly.
"I'm young too... I'm Ratatosk, and I'm only ten, but I have to protect this world from the demons trying to get through this door I created to keep them out of this world." He gestured to the arch and the globe, before tilting his head as if noticing something. "Wait... there's something starting to spread mana for me... I can feel it, they're appearing like a ring moving outwards from the Tree."
Yasin frowned.
"The Sentinels? I brought a seed with me, and planted it near a root of the Tree where the Tree told me to... Mana started coming out from it after it grew bigger."
The child Spirit rose to his feet, strength visibly returning to him as his burden began to lessen.
"The Tree made something to spread the mana out for me? And people to look after those 'Sentinels'? I... I can feel it, my Centurions aren't having to work as hard to stabilise the mana... It's working!"
Yasin walked over to him, stopping at his side before pointing towards the entrance through which he'd come.
"Was it you who defeated all those things out there?"
Ratatosk nodded.
I had to... to protect the world." He bowed his head, looking lost. "I had to..."
In that moment it suddenly struck Yasin that this Summon Spirit, for he'd now identified in his sense that that is what this boy was, had the mind of the child he resembled... A mere boy had been forced to fight such evil, all alone?
He reached out, paternal instinct awakening in his adult body as he sat himself down beside the boy and drew him onto his lap. He then cradled Ratatosk, holding him close to comfort him.
"I'm with you now, you're not alone anymore. I'll keep watch over you, for as long as I have to."
Ratatosk looked surprised at first, before relaxing into Yasin's comforting embrace. Never before had the Spirit known why the elven children took such comfort from being in the arms of their parents, but now he understood. Yasin, for all that he was new to life, would be the parent who would watch over and guide him through the troubles and trials he would face. With Yasin at his side, he had nothing to fear.
Sighing with contentment in that grasp, as those thoughts settled into his once troubled mind, nightmares of demons pounding on the door faded.
"Don't leave me alone, not anymore... I don't want to be alone ever again... Father..."
Yasin's expression softened even further, as he smiled again.
"I'll always be here for as long as you need me, Ratatosk."
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Alaia Skyhawk: Aww, so sweet. Yes Yasin, for all that he's only a few days old, has 'adopted' Ratatosk as a son... Basic reason he can do that, the Alurannai just created are all already adult, so parental instinct kicks in pretty quick when they're confronted with a child in need of protection. Ratatosk can't be with his 'Mother' for now, so Yasin is now his only source of close comfort, poor kid.