Tales of Symphonia: Another Tale
We Need to Start Early Tomorrow

'Well...maybe I should move...I mean if I don't and she wakes up..she might think I'm some kind of freak.' Genis thought to himself, suddenly worried, 'But then again, she's the one that came over here..' and the proof of this was the fireplace and a marking on the wall that had been above Genis, which the two were now under.

Genis didn't want to move for fear of waking her, but at the sametime he wanted her to wake up so he wouldn't feel so awkward. But in the end, he decided to lay and let Presea's sleep continue. Besides, she must be having good dreams, because she had the biggest smile on her face that Genis had ever seen there.

'I wish I could read minds...find out what's making her so happy.' Genis thought. Suddenly he felt movement.

Looking over at Presea he noticed her eyes fidget and then open. Her senses were still a bit numb from sleeping and she gave out a small yawn before realising she was on the wrong side of the mini campsite, and her back was warm. But not just normal warm, the soft warmth of being pressed against something warm. She turned her head, and saw Genis lieing beside her. She could feel her face growing warm as she realised that she had moved into him during the night.

"G'morning..." Genis said, looking at Presea's wide-eyed face.

"I...I'm...I'm sorry.." Presea managed to get out still half-shocked from what she had done.

"For what?" Genis asked, there was nothing to be sorry about.

"I probably woke you up...and this must seem...awkward." Presea said, turning her head to the ground.

"It was awkward..." Genis answered..

Before Presea could say anything, though, a loud, vicous roar echoed around the cave. The two sat bolt upright.

"W-what was that?" Genis asked, fear in his voice.

"Something big.." Presea answered Genis question and stood up, drawing her axe.

Right on que, a monstrous creature came barreling through the temple corridor. A large reptillian creature, but it was also wormlike. It was dim gray, and it could move exceptionally fast. Two red stock-eyes popped from the top of the creaturesd head, as it savagely thrashed it's face, chomping at whatever moved. The creature had short needle-like legs that, despite their size, moved the creature very quickly. There wasn't anyway to get around this thing, it was much too big.

"P-Presea are you c-crazy? That thing will k-kill you!" Genis shouted.

"I know...chance of the two of us survivng this encounter is only 56 percent." Presea said, slipping into loss of emotion for a moment. Saying something, but then having it register shortly after. 'We're going to die...'

Genis looked behind him, the entrance to the temple looked surprisingly close. Maybe they could out run the creature. He tapped Presea's shoulder and pointed to the entrance, waiting for her to run first before he moved. As they neared the rocky exit, they already began to duck down so they could quickly swich into a crawl when it was needed.

Presea entered the crawl space first, moving rapidly towards the shining light of the sun. As Genis entered, he felt a stab of pain run up and down his right leg. He looked back to see one of those needle-like legs, inside his own. Pain began to shoot through his body. He managed to find a rock and smack the leg away, long enough for him to crawl to safety. As he reached the blinding light of the sun, he was helped out by Presea and his sister, Raine.

"Are you okay? Did the thing hurt you?" Raine asked checking over her little brother, she stopped her scan at the back of his right leg, "What..what the hell happened to you!"

"One of it's legs...it tried to pin me in place with them..." Genis said, pain still flowing through his veins.

"..can't you heal him with one of you're spells?" Presea asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"I can make the pain go away and stop the bleeding, but the gash that is here, it will take time to heal." Raine starting a first-aid spell to make the blood stop gushing out and the pain that must be throbbing to vanish, "Presea, get my bag, I should have something to cover the wound with."

"Yes, ." Presea said, hurrying off to get the bag for Raine.

"I shouldn't have sent you in there...I knew about the monster...well I heard the rumors... this is my fault..."

"No Raine, I was...carless...I should've been more careful." Genis said, trying to cheer his sister up.

Just then Presea returned with the bag.

"Thank you Presea." Raine thanked, then rummaged through the bag rapidly. Finally she pulled out a medicine bottle, and a cloth, "This is goign to sting for a second."

Raine poured the medicine onto the cloth and pressed it against Genis' leg. Genis closed his eyes, even though he was trying to convince himself it didn't sting. Raine tied the cloth around his leg.

"Keep that there for a few weeks, we'll check on it then." Raine said, standing up and putting the medicing bottle back in her bag, "We've been side-tracked long enough, we should continue."

Genis and Presea nodded in agreement, following Raine back to their original path.

The day passed, giving way to the darkness of night. They set up their camp and started a fire. Using some of their food, Genis had made a stew. A wonderful stew at that. After the dinner, they decided to get an early start tomorrow and try to make up for lost time. So they went to their tents. Raine to hers, Genis and Presea to theirs.

"Um...Genis?" Presea asked, trying to get Genis' attention.

"Yes Presea?"

"About earlier this morning...in the temple..."

"Don't worry you were probably just cold...right?"

"Um...yeah...I was,cold..." 'I was awake...but I can't tell him now...it would seem so awkward...'

"You should get some sleep now, we need to get up early."

Presea nodded, and buried herself into her sleeping bag. She slowly slipped into a light sleep. Genis lay awake a while longer, thinking. He looks over at Presea's sleeping bag. All of her that can be seen is her pink hair, poking out from the sleeping bag, the rest of her head buried inside. Genis reached over, and before he realised it, his hand had was on the bit of soft hair that was poking out.

Genis quickly drew his hand back as he saw some motion from inside the sleeping bag. He turned over and pretended to sleep. Presea's head emerged from the depths of the sleeping bag. She was sure something was playing around with her hair. It was then that she noticed Genis wasn't really sleeping but acting like it. She smiled before burrowing into her sleeping bag again.