Oh dear me, is this what I think it is? Is it an update? By George it's an update! The tenth chapter ghost has finally disappeared. Come let us celebrate with cookies!
Seriously though, sorry for the hold up. The good news is I have written down all the new/old but modified ideas that I got in the past few weeks so hopefully this won't happen again…or at least for awhile. Also it's spring so New Hampshire doesn't have to worry about anymore ice storms.
Chapter Ten: Going in Ten Thousand Different Directions
and Winding Up Nowhere
Lloyd was incredibly grateful when night had finally fallen and Rain and Genis were asleep. He got up and quietly left the room heading down the stairs. Thinking inside the small room made him feel uneasy, he felt much more comfortable outside. Thanks to him they found out what happened to Spiritua's manuscript; those people sold it to some old man on Hokensia peak. What was his name again? Well it didn't matter anyway. All Lloyd knew for certain was that the trip to Hokensia was going to be a ridiculous detour that they didn't need to take.
He was also certain that a large bruise was going to cover his stomach for the next few days. After they had gotten inside the hotel Raine had berated him for his actions. Naturally he mouthed off…and got kicked in the stomach. At least he wouldn't feel sore thanks to his Cruxis Crystal.
"Ah! Go away!" Lloyd was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard Colette screaming down the hall. He quickly jumped down the stairs and pushed the door of Colette's door open.
"Colette!" No one was there, but Colette looked to him horrified running up to him, very happy to see him.
"Oh Lloyd, thank goodness."
"What happened?"
"I woke up and there was this weird person in my room standing over me and -"
She stopped as Lloyd made his way to the open window on the other side of her room. He leaned out and looked around. No one was in the area; no lights from surrounding houses were on either. Whoever came must have left in a hurry when Colette screamed. Why did she even have the window open in the first place? He closed it and looked back at her. "No one's here now." He told her, deciding not to ask why the blonde girl had the window open in the first place, and looked her over. She didn't seem to be hurt, but it was hard to tell from how thick her clothes were. "You alright?"
She nodded feeling relieved. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said face becoming red and she played with her fingers. "I think he ran away when I hit him."
Well that explained why no one was around. Colette's strength had to have started increasing by now thanks to the angel transformation. He gave a small chuckle finding it strangely amusing that a cute girl like Colette could push a grown man out the window with a small push.
His thoughts stopped like two trains colliding. Cute? "I'm going to go for a walk." He said hurriedly heading for the door.
"Oh, I'll come -"
"No." He told her. "Just go back to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." He shut the door behind him not noticing the look the blonde girl was giving him. He went outside and promptly hit his head against the brick wall, for once wishing he could feel the pain that should be throbbing from his skull.
He just thought Colette was cute. He thought Colette was cute. He shouldn't be thinking that; he shouldn't even be getting close to anyone in their little traveling party, especially not the Chosen. This was bad; very, very bad. He cursed under his breath as he turned around leaning against the wall trying to sort out his thoughts. Just because he thought - some who knows why - that the Chosen was cute, did not mean that he was actually attracted to her. Well it did, but not in ta romantic way, right? Right; the last thing he needed was to actually have feelings for her.
"Lloyd you're foreheads all red." Lloyd stayed quiet looking out the window of the hotel as Genis stared at him. "What happened?"
"Nothing." Despite trying to sound convincing, Genis had his hands on his hips clearly unconvinced.
"Yeah right."
The angel side rubbing his red colored eyes as though pretending to wake himself up, "I went for a walk last night because I couldn't sleep, and tripped on the stairs when coming back in."
There was silence for awhile until Genis finally said, "If you say so…" Clearly Genis didn't believe him, but had figured out by now that it was a bad idea to press his mercenary 'acquaintance' any further then he wanted to be.
Once the group got there little belongings together, they met back with Colette – bright and cheery as always – and set out for Hokensia Peak. Lloyd could already feel the dread from the journey; Hokensia Peak was a week away from Palmacosta. A week long detour that they didn't need, but had no choice to take. It was either this or wander around aimlessly for the seals. Lloyd clenched his fist into a ball frustrated by the situation, realizing that because of his lack of experience in Sylvarant (to be precise none), he only had a vague idea where each seal would be.
"Lloyd, are you okay?"
The angel looked down at Colette upon hearing her voice. She was staring at him with a worried look across her face. "What?"
"You have a very scary look on your face." She said. Lloyd stared at her for several seconds before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Sorry, just thinking about something."
"Like what?"
Why was she always worrying about people?
"It's not important. Don't worry about it." He told her and quickly moved past her. He could feel her large blue eyes staring at his back. For some reason it made him restless.
The group stayed on the road for three days before stopping at the House of Salvation on the evening of the fourth day. When they rested for the night, Lloyd decided to go on the roof to watch the stars seeing as it was the only thing he could do aside from daydream. He waved off Genis' insistence to join them for dinner and later also noticed that Colette did the same thing. She looked worried.
They continued on the next morning and reached Hokensia two days later. Lloyd waited outside as the group talked to the man that lived in the building. He looked around at the people that were either on a pilgrimage or traveling. He listened as some people were talking about something going on in Palmacosta. The Desian's had gone back…he wasn't surprised; it was safe to assume that they got approval from Magnius to execute the woman who ran the shop that they had gone into earlier. Magnius always found an excuse to kill more people, the Grand Cardinal made a hobby out of it.
Lloyd stopped listening when the rest of the group came out; he raised an eyebrow when he saw that Raine looked flustered. "Something wrong?"
"Nothing!" The half-elf answered, a little too quickly, a little too loudly, and in a completely unconvincing tone. The three of them watched as she stormed off muttering under her breath about a 'perverted old man who had no decency in regards to women.' He then looked at Genis asking for an explanation.
He was glad to give one. "That greedy old man won't let us see the Spiritua's manuscript unless we get him a statue of the first Chosen. And even then he's only going to let Colette and my sister look at it." The half elf told the angel, "So we need to go all the way the House of Salvation and ask for the statue then come back here."
Lloyd could not believe his ears. "You've gotta be kidding me! You mean we wasted all our time getting here and now we have to backtrack?"
"Yeah."
If he could fly there then the situation would be much easier. However they were walking, making it two to three days to get back to the House of Salvation, and another two to three to get the statue back to the old man. Why was such a simple journey taking so long to accomplish?
"Um…" Colette spoke up then stopped when she saw Lloyd look at her. He urged her to continue, "While Genis was arguing with that man, I got a glimpse at one of the passages. It spoke of a seal in a place where hot water shoots up from the ground."
"Water shoots up from the ground?" Lloyd repeated thinking. "Like a geyser?"
"I think so…"
"The Thoda Geysers?" Genis asked. "They're the geysers on an island east of here. We'd have to go back to the House of Salvation to get on the right road, but we can take a boat there after and check it out."
"Sounds like fun!" The blonde girl said clapping her hands together. "Let's go."
The Spiritua Statue back at the House of Salvation turned out to be fake. Fortunately the priest there had explained that the statue was probably somewhere in the Thoda Geyser. Raine made a mental not that he said 'in' the geyser and not 'at' or 'around' the geyser before having to slap Genis over the head for mouthing off to the priest. After getting the information they needed and promising not to tell anyone that they Spiritua Statue was fake, the group started in the direction to the shore.
"We should be careful around here." Raine said as they went through the field. "The Palmacosta Ranch is somewhere around here."
"Probably in the nearby woods." Lloyd added, "It'd be the perfect hiding place for a large ranch." It was like stating the obvious, after all why would the Desian's have a ranch out in the open? Even the Iselia ranch was at least covered by the mountain.
They reached the docks in about a day and a half and went inside to pay for use of the boat. More specifically the wash tubs. Lloyd hadn't expected washtubs, but it only proved how dried up Sylvarant had become in its eight hundred years of decline.
"Um, excuse me." Lloyd looked up at the receptionist who Raine gave the money to use the wash tubs. She was staring at him with a curious look on her face. "I know this might sound strange, but could you move your hair over the right side of your face?"
He frowned mildly confused before doing what she asked, taking his hair on his head and pulling it down so it covered his left eye. The woman seemed pleased because she clapped her hands together. "I knew it, my eyes never lie. You look just like him!"
Lloyd let go of his hair, letting it spring back up as he stared at her, "Just like him? What do you mean?" He asked.
"Oh, someone who looked like you was just by here. Though he was taller, had different colored hair, and wore a lot of purple."
"That's my dad!" Lloyd's response was a lot louder and eager than it probably should have been. "Do you know where he went?"
"Yeah, he paid for a trip to the Geyser's a few days ago. Came back stayed a night and then went off somewhere else." She explained. Lloyd's hands dropped to his side as did his head to the ground. His dad had actually come to the Geyser's. He did say he'd meet Lloyd either at them or Asgard. No doubt he'd probably go there next.
Part of him wanted to just up and head in that direction right away, but first they had a seal to unlock. It shouldn't take too long. Hopefully…
My apologies if this chapter is horrible. With College and everything, I've been going through a string of events where I want to do something but can't get it as well as I wanted to and sometimes can't do it at all. I'm so swamped with stuff in my Russian Literature and Creative Writing classes that it's unbelievable. On the bright side I'm actually doing good in math for once…
The only only reason I got this out was because I've been more focused on Tales of the Abyss lately thanks to the Anime (working on a Natalia costume for Anime Boston). So if Lloyd starts acting like Luke, or Kratos – if he ever shows up – like Jade, let me know. My memory of Symphonia is unfortunately failing on me. And no Wii this semester to play it on too. D=
Well I'm done making excuses and the like. Hope you liked, despite how much I didn't -_-