August 14 (Tales of Symphonia) Trailblazer

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Title: Trailblazer
Day/Theme: August 13 // life is short and the world is wide
Series: Tales of Symphonia
Character/Pairing: Lloyd, Genis, Raine, S
A/N: Set post-game, even though I haven't quite reached the end of the game...>.>  I'm ignoring ToS 2 because I haven't played it.
Also, this is missing a few scenes--One on Colette, One on everyone together, but it's past midnight and I need to sleep. I'll add it tomorrow, once I can get on...>.>
Summary: There are still things to be done, even when the world has been saved.
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His bag bulges, the exspheres clinking as he moves. Noishe still pad softly beside him, panting in the heat. Several burlap bags are slung over his bag, tawny stripes contrasting his green-white fur, and he whines lightly.

"There, there, Noishe," Lloyd murmurs, stroking his large head. "Once we have enough, I'll destroy them. Besides, only one of those bags are full anyways! What are you complaining about?"

Contrary to his original plan, he is not just with one person for this exhausting journey of his. Raine is researching, going through the ages of history in libraries and research stations. Genis and Kratos sometimes join her, Genis learning more as he goes and Kratos adding his knowledge to the pool. They spend days upon days together before the two leave her to compile the data.

Genis usually spends his days hunting with Lloyd and Colette. They traverse fields and valleys, crossing mountains and seas, as they stop in each town, each outpost. Sometimes they come across an exsphere and have to convince the owner to give it up.

More often than not, they find nothing.

"Well, it makes sense," Regal explains one day. "If they have an exsphere, they are probably using it. If they are using it, they are likely not within a city, where there is no need for  it, but out in the wilderness."

The issue with that, though, is that the wilderness is far too...large. Wild.

"I think I'll go on ahead, then," Sheena announces, getting up off the ground.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asks, the last pieces of his breakfast littering his face.

"Well, I'm a ninja." As though that explains everthing. Seeing the dumbfounded expression on his face, she tries again. "I'm trained to look for things." Still nothing. "So, I'll go on ahead and look for exspheres or clues to their whereabouts and come back when I have something."

"But--"

"I think I'll go with you," Zelos decides, getting up.

"What?" She almost, almost raises her voice to yell at him, but Genis and Colette are still sleeping and she lowers her voice voluntarily.

"I can't leave a hunny on her own, especially not in dangerous places like these." He dusts himself off, carefully and calmly. "Besides, who knows just who we might meet in this search of yours?"

The look on his face explains all and Sheena doesn't restrain her yell this time.

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!"

He ends up going with her anyways, despite her protests and her angry glares. The entire time she's packing, Sheena mutters under her breath and though he knows she can't possibly be doing so, Lloyd can almost swear she's cursing with bad luck or the like.

The pair come back every two weeks or so. Zelos has scratches and swollen cheeks every now and then, a testament of Sheena's strenghth if nothing else.

Sheena usually leaves an exsphere or two in the bags on Noishe's back and a mention of a town that might have some more.

Then they disappear once more, Sheena running quickly ahead in an attempt to lose Zelos.

-x-
 

Presea and Regal appear every now and then.

"The company is running smoothly and I have some records of shipments," he explains when he arrives, Presea following slightly behind. She looks older and more beautiful, and Lloyd marvels at the difference.

She smiles sometimes, laughs at jokes she never used to get, and never fails to make Genis blush. She still avoids his crush, a testement to how old she is.

"I'm helping with the paperwork," she tells Genis, "It's..interesting. I meet a lot of people. It's...nice."

She still can't fully explain her feelings still, hesitate to put words to the emotions that swell within her.

(It's only with Regal that she can put a word to her feelings--she will not abandon him anymore.)

"She's very helpful," Regal adds, a soft smile on his lips as he glances down at her. "She understands the concepts very quickly and is one of my best aides."

It's odd to see his hands, shackle-free and moving about. He runs a hand through his hair as he sits down beside her, calmly talking to Raine about a few new books he's recieved, about his promotion of half-elves.

It's hard not to miss the missing gap between Presea and Regal as they sit side by side.
 

-x-

Raine and Genis don't spend as much time together anymore. At times, Genis leaves the group and joins up with Raine, trying to change the views of the world.

It's hard and it isn't very successful. Hatred runs deep and it's easier to stay the same than change.

"Mithos," he says, "wasn't all that wrong. I...I could see how he ended up like that. It's hard not to give up sometimes."

The latest town ignores them without another word, doors barred and windows shut. A stone is hurled at them, from who or where, they don't know.

It might as well be from the whole town.

"That is true. We'll probably not convince even a hundreth of the population to change their feelings." Raine sighs. "However--"

(there are a few, a small few, that listen and talk to them. They invite the siblings over for a meal, joking and talking as they eat. A little girl offers a flower, her older brother blushes as Raine pats his head, and Genis thanks the mother as she gives them a small basket of food.)

"--is it not worth this effort, in the end?"
 

-x-

Kratos doesn't like to join the party all that much. Perhaps it is the regret for all his deeds, for all his crimes that span those thousands of years.

He comes with a few exspheres, some advice, locations, and maybe the promise of some training.

It's always something different and never for long.

"You know," Raine tells him as they eat, "Lloyd has forgiven you already. You're just wasting your time like this."

"I know." It isn't about Lloyd forgiving him, not anymore.

It's about Kratos forgiving himself and that is much harder. He still feels suicidal, at times, like letting it go and slipping away like he should have those years ago.

So he hunts and barters and tries to help that orphaned girl, that wounded travellor.  And perhaps, when all is said and done, he might be able to look in the mirror and like what he sees.

"...Lloyd can wait," Raine finally replies. 

She still doesn't fully trust him but she sits with him anyways, quietly observing the others. 
 

-x-

Colette's away on a personal journey right now, Kratos guarding as she does so, and Lloyd feels a little lonely.

Nearly everyone is gone this time and all that's left is Noishe.

There are a few times when this happens, when he wakes up to a fur-covered earth and realizes he fell asleep on Noishe once again.

It's only when there are others that he stops to break camp, to sit down and relax after a whole day of walking.

"Hey, boy," he strokes the long hairs on Noishe, thinking it's about time he groomed the dog. He glances at the still empty bags, and thinks there is so much more to be done.

So many people to find and exspheres to take and, maybe he'll never find them all. Maybe no one will.

Still...it's a start and it's nothing more, but it's something at the very least.