Chapter Six: Beginning of a Journey

Iselia

The day was bright and the light wind blew some of Colette's hair into her face as she, Genis and Raine waited outside for Lloyd to return from the woods. She looked at her teacher and best friend trying to read their expressions; she couldn't tell what her professor was thinking but it was obvious from Genis' fidgeting that he was getting impatient. He hadn't said to her where Lloyd went, only that he'd be back in the morning.

It was a few minutes later when she saw the red and black dressed teenager coming out of the woods, running over and waving his hand. "Lloyd!"

He joined them, giving an acknowledging nod to her and Raine before taking something out of his pocket and giving it to Genis. The younger boys eyes widened as did Raine's when she saw the item. "This is…"

"Found it near the ranch." Lloyd lied. "Thought you might want to use it, Genis."

"Me?" The boy's face was a mix of shock and excitement.

"Hold on." Raine spoke up eyeing the sphere suspiciously, "Genis, let me take a look at it first." Before the boy could protest she swiped it from him and began to examine it with an eye much like what she had had at the Martel temple. This time though rather than being frighteningly excited, she was inspecting it for anything that would appear harmful. Lloyd couldn't blame her, being the older sibling and all, but they didn't have the time to do such trivial things. Fortuanetely she seemed to be satisfied –or maybe it was dissapointed – with the exsphere's lack of anything suspicious and handed it back to Genis. "Well it seems safe, so go ahead and use it. Lloyd I trust you'll show Genis how to properly attach this thing."

"Uh, yeah…no problem." The stern look the half-elf gave him practically rival his fathers. To save time Lloyd simply attached the exsphere himself and then told him he'd show him how to safely attach and remove it later that day. Colette cheerfully led the way as Lloyd trailed them from behind a small smirk on his face as he watched Marble's exsphere shine faintly from Genis' hand.

'I wonder how he'll react if he finds out whose life was taken by that exsphere.' Better yet, how long would it take for Genis to figure it out?

Though Lloyd couldn't actually feel the heat, the sweat that still poured down his face, as well as the reactions from the other three, gave him the idea that the Triet Desert was very hot. The large orange-brown land was the home of poisonous snakes and scorpions as well as thieves looking for weary and sun burnt travelers that had there guards down from the scorching heat. They were hoping to get to the small village in the middle of the desert before it got dark; while the desert was a lot cooler at night and the monsters less active, an oblivious traveler was more likely to get ambushed by thieves. Lloyd had assured Raine that even if they dodn't get there by nightfall that he could protect Colette, but the teacher seemed determined to get to their destination on time.

"You alright Genis?" He called behind him noticing that the smaller boy was having trouble keeping up in the warm climate.

"Yeah. It's just so hot."

"It's a desert."

"I know that." The half-elf responded his eyes going up and down Lloyds clothing, "With what you're wearing I'm surprised you haven't passed out yet."

Lloyd looked at him with a blank face before looking down at his longsleeve red shirt and heavy black pants. The half-elf had a point; if he was a normal person he probably would have gotten heat stroke by now. He was grateful that all his pain receptors were now blocked by the Cruxis Crystal. "I'm just so used to traveling that it doesn't bother me that much anymore." He told him.

"Doesn't mean you should still be careful." Genis said trying to sound like he didn't care; talking seemed to be giving him more energy by taking his mind off the heat. "And I'm telling you this now because I know Raine's going to chastise you when we get to the village. Trust me, she does it to everyone."

"I can hear you Genis." The smaller boy winced when he saw his older sister look behind toward them. Lloyd couldn't help himself and let out a small snicker.

"So where is this first seal anyway?" He decided to ask, he wasn't sure where the seals were exactly. He had a rough idea from what his father had said. The first seal was in the ancient city that was said to have been destroyed when Efreet went out of control. Unfortunately he had failed to tell him where that ancient city was. 'Thanks dad…'

"The first seal is where Efreet is said to have lost control during one of the previous chosen's journeys." Raine told him. "But that place is only known to the people who live in the Triet desert."

"Oh." The angel just said and looked down in a random direction. In the distance all he could see was sand being kicked up by the wind; a sandstorm probably. Though something in the middle of hte storm caught his eye. Some kind of large blue building, it reminded him of the Desian Ranches, but it looked like it was designed to stay hidden than stick out like the Ranches would. The Desians' didn't have a Ranch set up in the Triet desert, the weather was too overbearing on prisoners to properly harvest exspheres. The few prisoners that were taken from Triet went to either Iselia or Palmacosta. "Renegades…" It seemed like the only other possibility.

"Look!" Colette's chirpy voice cut through his thoughts like a sharp knife. Even when exhausted from crossing the desert she still seemed to have enough energy to shout. He looked over to see why; there was what appeared to be a small village in the middle of the desert. "Professor we made it!"

They reached the small town by sunset, by then Colette and Genis had lost what little energy they had left. Raine left Lloyd to take them to the inn, giving him some money to get rooms, and left to question the villagers for the location of Efreet's seal. The three went inside and got two rooms, the professor returned when it got dark and told them where they would be going early the next morning to beat the scorcing sun. As Genis slept in the same room, Lloyd stared out at the desert. Being an Angel he was wide awake and didn't feel any fatigue from being in the desert. He had a feeling that nights in Sylvarant were going to be incredibly boring.

Quietly the Angel left the room and made his way outside, the sky was clear and the stars were twinkling. He had to admit, the lack of trees in the desert made the whole sky glow and the sand under his feet now appearred a blue green color. He suddenly felt like he wasn't the only person outside; quietly he reached for his right sword. He spun around quickly unsheathing it; the girl who had snuck up behind him gave a startled cry and fell over on the ground. He relaxed lower his sword giving the girl a weird look. "Colette?"

She gave a soft groan as she stood up, "Ow, that one hurt." She said dusting herself off. "I'm sorry, did I startle you?"

"I almost cut your head off," He pointed out casually keeping the sword in his hand, "Shouldn't I be the one apologizing? And by the way, it's not a good idea to approach a swordsman, or anyone with a weapon, from behind in an area like this."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

It was Lloyd's turn to groan as the words left her. "You don't have to – forget it." There's was no point in telling her she didn't have to apologize; something deep down was telling him she'd just apologize again. He decided to turn the conversation to something else, "Shouldn't you be asleep? We're leaving tomorrow morning for the seal of fire."

"I know, I guess I'm so excited I couldn't sleep. I thought going out for some fresh air would help, and I saw you heading out." She moved her arms behind her and tilted her head to the side, "You couldn't sleep either?"

"Something like that I guess. I've never been this far into the Triet desert before so seeing were we're going is kinda exciting." Of course he'd never actually been to the desert before now, so it was only half true. He wanted to get to the seal because it would begin Colette's transformation and the sooner this was done, the better. He had to admit though that at night the desert wasn't too bad and he said it to the blonde girl standing next to him.

"Yeah, when it's not boiling hot this place is really nice." She paused then considered thoughtfully, "I wonder why this desert gets so little rain if it's so close to Iselia. The professor says that this place is influenced by Efreets power so you'd think Iselia would be too."

"Maybe it's not close enough."

"Maybe, though now that I think about it, it might explain the warm summers we have and no snow in the winter." The Chosen gave a giggle that would probably be contagious if anyone besides him was with her. He gave a shrug as though giving it some thought but no really caring.

"You'd better head back inside Colette; we have an early start tomorrow remember?"

"I'd like to stay out here for a while longer."

"Colette, go back inside." He said in a more commanding voice.

"Okay…" The girl gave a small pout; Lloyd guessed she wanted to spend more time with him, or was annoyed that she was being ordered around by somewhere who was close to her age. "Hey Lloyd?"

"What?" He asked slightly annoyed now. Colette didn't say anything looking at her with her big blue eyes before closing them and shaking her head.

"Nothing, never mind." She spoke in a less chipper manner, "Well good night." Lloyd watched her as she ran back into the hotel. He scowled as he looked back up at the door, a scowl which relaxed into a more neutral position. It didn't matter, she'd probably forget about it in the morning.

He changed his focus to something else and climbed onto the wall of the wall of the small village. Unfortunately for him an oddly placed mountain – or was it an over sized rock? He wasn't sure – kept him from being able to see the blue construct that he had seen while in the desert earlier. No light were on as far as he could tell either. 'What exactly were the Renagades up to?' He thought to himself; Yuan was supposed to be dealing with them, but it was so tempting for him to run, or fly, over there and break in himself. Shame that most of the Renegades, as well as his companions were half-elves; they would sense him before he even got within a mile of the facility.

It would have to another time then. The Angel jumped down from the wall and started back to the hotel. Aside from the stars there was nothing else out here of interest until they got to the fire seal.

End Chapter Six

I'm going the OVAs route and skipping the Renagade base to get to the Ossa trail faster. Would have had this up sooner, but College has been taking a lot out of my time, and I have a paper in my Religion class I'm supposed to be working on (hence any errors in this chapter, along with my probably my usual mistake of mispelling Iselia/Isalia. I'm literally posting this thing minutes before my Pathway class). Guess it's off to the library later. I'm tossing around some ideas for two new fics, one being a Tales one, but with the busy schedule we'll just have to wait and see what happens :).

That's all see you later!