(A/N): Alright, I'm going to try writing this chapter in first person instead of third person. Please let me know in the reviews if you want it in third or first person. Also, thanks to knightblazer85 for writing the first review I have ever gotten on this site.

Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia are copyrighted to Namco Bandai. If I owned either one of these series, I wouldn't be here sitting on my ass writing this story.

Chapter 3: A New Friend

(Luke PoV)

As I continued down the pathway, I could see a gateway up in the distance.

"That must be Iselia." I thought.

I continued walking up to the gateway, but I was then stopped by some of the town guards.

"Halt!" one of the 2 guards guarding the gate shouted. "Who are you?"

"I'm a traveler. I'm stopping by Iselia to buy some supplies."

The guards looked me over a little bit, then let me in. "Don't cause trouble now, and you'll be just fine." One of them said. But, something told me that they weren't that well trained. Still, I didn't want or need to cause trouble, so I simply nodded and went off into the village.

Iselia reminded me a lot of Engeve, except being a little bit bigger. There were some small gardens here and there, and Iselia had a few more buildings than Engeve. But it was still very similar. I saw some kids playing with wooden sticks, and others playing with a ball. Some people stared at me, and I realized I probably stood out like a sore thumb. I was now happy my hair was long, because it hid the black demon sigil on the back of my coat. I didn't want people to get the wrong idea.

I began to walk around the village. I wasn't really that big. After a few minutes, I found an inn and an item shop on the east side of town. Walking into the item shop, I began to notice a few things. For one, Sylvarant used the exact same currency as Aulderant, gald. Secondly, Sylvarant also used life bottles and gels! How similar was Sylvarant to Auldrant? I had some gald that I collected from chest and monsters around Eldrant. I don't know why some monsters were even carrying gald at all, but I just went with it. Anyways, I bought some life bottles, apple gels, orange gels, food, a canteen, as well as a new diary while I was at it (My old one was just about filled).

After putting the newly bought items into the item bag, I turned around and walked out the door. As I was walking out of the shop, I accidentally bumped into someone. He was the first to recover, and immediately helped me up.

"Sorry! Didn't see where I was going there! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked at the person who helped me up. The person was a teenage boy, who looked like he was a year younger than me. His hair was brown, and oddly spiked upwards to the left of his face. What really surprised me was what he wore. The teen's long sleeved shirt was bright red, and had A LOT of buttons on it. The shirt was also collared, and had the two ends of a white scarf billowing out on either side of him. His black pants were held up by brown suspenders, and had two belts criss-crossing each other around his waist, and each belt had a scabbard which held the hilts of two wooden swords. The boy also wore red glove and boots, the same color as his shirt.

"Hey, are you new to Iselia? I haven't seen you here before. I'm Lloyd."

"Luke. Luke fon Fabre." It felt weird saying my name like that.

"Wow, that's a cool name!"

"Thanks. Anyway, I'm a traveler. I was just stopping by to pick up supplies and stay until tomorrow."

"You know, you can stay with me if you want. The beds at the inn aren't all that great." I was surprised. Lloyd was offering me a place to stay for no reason other than to be nice.

"Thanks, but I don't want to-" "Hey, it's not a big deal. Dwarven vow #2: Never abandon someone in need!"

"Um, thanks, I guess. If it's okay with your parents.'

"No worries! Dad won't mind!"

"If you say so. Let's go back when the sun is starting to set."

"Alright!"

0o0o0o0o0

Lloyd joined the party!

0o0o0o0o0

Skit: Getting to know you

Luke: So, you live here in Iselia Lloyd?

Lloyd: Nah, I live out of town. My friends live in Iselia, and I go to school here, so that's why I'm usually here. Where are you from, Luke?

Luke (Surprised): Uh... I'm… from…

Lloyd: Hey if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. What do you normally do?

Luke: I like to practice swordplay. I'd say I'm an okay swordsman.

Lloyd: Cool! Can you spar with me at my house?

Luke: Sure, why not?

(Luke and Lloyd exit)

Lorelei: Luke, I hope you don't get too attached to Lloyd. It might impede our progress.

End Skit

Lloyd gave me a tour of Iselia. "Here, is the schoolhouse. I really don't like it here." I looked up at the old wooden house. "Alright." I said. We then walked to the west side of town, a little above where I first walked in. "And here," Lloyd said, "Is the Sage's house. My teacher and her brother live here."

Just then, a young sounding voice called out to us. "Hey, Lloyd! What're you doing?" Me and Lloyd looked over to see a kid a bit shorter than Anise walk up to us. Looking down at the kid, I saw that he had long, spiky, and silver hair. Is it normal in Sylvarant for people to hair like that so young? The kid also wore a sky blue short-sleeved sweater over a black shirt, sky blue shorts with weird white glyphs on them, and black and sky blue shoes. He stopped and looked at me. "Who're you?" he asked.

"This is Luke." Lloyd said to the kid. "He was passing through Iselia and I offered him a place to stay."

"Lloyd, you're WAY too kind. Someday, you're going to let in an escaped criminal into your house."

"Hey, I'm just following the vows."

"That's your excuse for everything!" The kid seemed to have forgotten about me.

"HEY!" I shouted. This seemed to have gotten their attention.

"Sorry, Luke." The kid replied, "I'm Genis Sage. I live at this house."

"It's okay. No harm done."

"Anyways," Lloyd turned to Genis, "have you seen Colette anywhere, Genis?"

"She'd said that she and Phaidra were going to the Martel Temple to do some church stuff, and won't be back until late in the afternoon."

"Okay, we'll just talk to her tomorrow. By the way, did you need us for something?" Lloyd asked. He had a point; Genis had called Lloyd like he had wanted something.

"Oh yeah." Genis suddenly grinned evilly. "Raine said she wanted to talk to you about your behavior in class today. She's in the school right now, and doesn't want you to be late." Lloyd's face was immediately drained all color once he heard that.

"Oh, ah, tell the Professor I'll be with her in a moment." Lloyd said with a sheepish grin as he began to inch away.

"Do you want me to tell her that you ran away?" Genis grinned.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Lloyd said as he went towards the schoolhouse, completely forgetting about me. I sighed.

"Hey," Genis said to me, "Don't take it personal about what I said to Lloyd. He may be an idiot, but he's still a good person. I wouldn't be friends with him if he wasn't."

"It's alright. I'll just go outside the borders and maybe kill some monsters. Could you tell Lloyd that?' I said, remembering what Lorelei said about monsters habiting the planet. I turned around and went to the northeastern entrance.

"Sure, no problem." Genis replied.

"Thanks" I said, rushing off.

0o0o0o0

I went a little bit outside Iselia out to some fields. "Alright," I grinned, unsheathing the Key of Lorelei "Let's see if my skills have gotten rusty after six months." I spotted a pack of wolves, which then seemed to notice me, and started to run at me. "Demon Fist!" I shouted as I uppercutted the air, sending out a white shockwave. It hit one of the wolves straight on, knocking it aside. The wolf next to it then lunged at me, but I blocked the attack before killing it with a well placed Sonic Thrust. Only one other wolf remained. I charged at it, then jumped into the air, placed my leg and blade forward, and shouted "Havoc Strike!" I hit the wolf's skull dead on, killing it instantly. It was here I discovered one thing: In Sylvarant, killing monsters doesn't make their mana run out and have the bodies disappear! It was weird. Anyway, I skinned the wolves with my hunting knife (and somehow found gald in the process), disposed of the bodies, and sat down to take a break.

"Wow, even after six months, I'm still going strong!"

"Yes, it appears that even though six months passed mentally, it didn't seem to pass physically. This gives us a big advantage."

"Yeah. That's great."

I then sat up and started to kill some more monsters. They were REALLY easy. I think I might have killed monsters for about twenty minutes. I just finished killing some birds when I heard a voice say "Excuse me, sir."

I turned around to see four people: an old looking lady in the front, two tall men in the back of the old lady, their formation forming a triangle, and in the middle of said triangle was a blonde haired girl around Tear's age. They all wore pure white clothes that reminded me of the robes worn by the Order of Lorelei.

"Yes?" I responded, putting my weapon away. They didn't look like bandits. "Who're you?"

"I'm sorry, sir but may I ask you something?"

"…What is it?"

"Phaidra, do you really think you should ask us him? This is really important matters." One of the men in the back asked the old lady. I could have sworn that I heard that name before. But where?

"Why, what are you asking?" I asked, now curious about what these people had wanted.

"Well, sir-"

"Luke. Luke is fine."

"Well Luke, my name is Phaidra, and I am a priestess at the Martel Temple near Iselia." I nodded. "And in case you didn't know, The Journey of Regeneration is a few days away."

I drowned her out before asking Lorelei about this Journey of Regeneration.

"The Journey of Regeneration is when a person known as The Chosen takes a pilgrimage around various temples in Sylvarant in order to keep the world from dying. The importance of the Chosen in Sylvarant is on the same level of importance as Fon Master Ion." I silently thanked Lorelei before returning to the conversation.

"Will you accept?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What was the question again?"

"Will you accept the job of protecting the Chosen during The Journey of Regeneration?"

"Wait, what?" She was offering the job of protecting the most important person in the world to a random person who she just learned the name of? "Why me?"

"Phaidra thought that you were a skilled swordsman after watching you kill some of those monsters." One of the men in the back said. "And we were having a difficult job finding mercenaries who work cheaply, so she decided to ask you."

"Okaaaaay. I'm happy that you think that I'm skilled enough to guard The Chosen, but… can you give me some time to think about it? This is really overwhelming." I asked.

"That is fine." Phaidra said. "Try to give us your answer by Wednesday, please? It's when the Jurney starts. Do you have a place to stay? We could book you a room at the inn."

"No, I'm already staying somewhere. It's close to Iselia though. I'll talk to you when I have an answer."

"Alright. Please let us know as soon as possible. Good day, Luke." As they were leaving, the girl in the middle said "Goodbye, Mr. Luke!" happily. Then they were gone. I looked at the sky, and then decided to kill some more monsters before going back in. Iselia wasn't big, and Lloyd shouldn't be too hard to find.

An hour before sunset, I went back into Iselia. I went towards the schoolhouse, and saw Lloyd outside. He then saw me and ran up to me.

"Hey Luke! Where were you?"

"I was outside the village, killing some monsters. How was the meeting"

"L-let's not talk about that." He looked like he was going to faint. "Anyway, it's close to sundown. We should probably head back to my house. Let's go, it's only a 12 to 15 minute walk, depending on how the monsters are." And with that, Lloyd and I headed off towards that southwest entrance.

0o0o0o0o

And, that's chapter 3. Sorry for taking so long, I couldn't find a decent reason for Luke to stay with Lloyd. To make up for this delay, though, I made the chapter MUCH longer than the previous two chapters (6 pages compared to 2). Anyway, next chapter, Luke will see if he will accompany the Chosen, and meet some new people.

As always, I'm Zerokai9, and I'll see you next time.

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