Tales Of Syphona Fan Fiction ❯ Adbertos ❯ Chapter 8- Deviation ( Chapter 8 )

Kratos stared at Anna as she walked ahead. He watched silently as she continued on lost in her thoughts, clenching and unclenching her right hand. She had not wanted to hide her exsphere, to wrap the cloth bandages back around her hand. She claimed that the fabric rubbed, causing pain.

He frowned as he considered this. In all his long years he had yet to see an exsphere react as this one was doing. Then again he had not known any human prisoners who had lasted as long as Anna had. Perhaps this was a normal occurrence.

He glanced down at his own exsphere, knowing his was quite a different story. He had been lucky, they all had. Their discomfort had only lasted a brief time, and even then they had not been dealing with an evolving crystal, but ones that were fully cultivated.

Anna was feeding the gem that was attached to the back of her hand with her very life force. In theory it would become like his own, capable of lending unbelievable power to whomever it was bestowed upon. Perhaps it was capable of that even now.

Kratos was hesitant to test this theory however. He did not want to destroy this girl’s exsphere nor did he want to end her life. This last bit surprised him more than it probably should have. As annoying as Anna was quickly becoming he did not desire to see this world without her.

In the past he had, without hesitation, took countless lives. But that was war, he told himself. It was a matter of kill or be killed. Without blinking he had seen scores of thousands slaughtered for the sake of bringing about the end of discrimination. But it was her dying wish and I am bound to uphold my promise to protect her brother.

He could not fathom why it should be any different now, why it should bother him unduly if this particular girl lost her life in the ongoing battle being waged. As long as the exsphere attached to the back of her hand did not fall into the hands of those he now saw as enemies it should not matter whether Anna lived or died.

Yet it did.

Kratos looked away from the source of his consternation, thinking ahead to their journey. It would do no good to dwell on these impenetrable thoughts, the sun was quickly setting and they would need to find shelter for the night. There was a grove of trees visible on the horizon, a dark smudge on the otherwise unbroken line. The sunlight was dwindling fast, but perhaps there was enough to reach the shelter of the forest.

“Kratos?”

His head whipped around, finding Anna now trailing behind him. She met his eyes briefly before looking down at her feet, just long enough for him to register the exhaustion she tried to hide.

“How much further before we can rest?”

“There is a grove of trees ahead,” he told her. “It isn’t much further.”

Anna looked up, studying the horizon. “You mean that speck way out there? There isn’t any hope of ever reaching that far before we lose the light. Can’t we stop here?”

“It would be better to reach the trees. We are too vulnerable out in the open.”

“I… I…,” she trailed off, staring ahead at the smudge that marked their destination. “I don’t think I can make it.”

Frowning he walked back to where she stood, her shoulders slumped in defeat. Grasping her arm he began walking forward, Anna falling in step beside him.

“Really, it’s much too far,” she said softly.

“You can make it,” he assured her, trying to sound as coaxing as possible. “It is not nearly as far as you make it out to be.”

“But I’m so tired,” Anna continued. “I don’t understand why we can’t camp among the rocks. Wouldn’t that be just as safe as the forest?”

“We can make it to the trees,” Kratos insisted. “It isn’t far and we will be that much closer to our destination in the morning. I thought you wanted to see how far you could push yourself? Didn’t you want to shorten the length of our journey?”

“Yes, but that was before,” Anna sighed. “I wasn’t so tired then, and there was plenty of light.”

“The sun is still with us,” Kratos remarked. “We have at least another hour of light.”

“But it isn’t very good light,” Anna rebuffed. “And it will be very dark when we reach the forest.”

“Inside the forest yes,” Kratos agreed. “But we are not going very deep into the trees. There will be sufficient light to gather a bit of kindling and light a fire. Then you can eat and rest.”

“I’m so tired I don’t think I can eat,” Anna sighed, stumbling and falling into him. “I can’t even walk!”

“You are perfectly capable of walking,” Kratos disagreed, pushing her to her feet. “We’re almost there, we’ve come almost halfway since you first said you could not make it.”

“And I won’t,” Anna insisted. “I’m so very tired. Please, let’s just stop here.”

“Once we reach the trees we will stop,” Kratos argued. “You can make it that far.”

He continued talking to her, keeping her preoccupied, and it was not long until they had reached the fringe of the trees. Anna immediately slumped to the ground, sprawling out with her eyes closed.

“I thought we’d never make it,” she sighed, opening her eyes to peer towards Kratos. “Can we really light a fire? I thought I saw a package of meat in your pack.”

“There is a bit of salted pork,” Kratos told her, setting the pack beside her. “I’ll find some suitable kindling and start a fire.”

He disappeared into the trees as Anna pulled the bag towards her, rummaging until she found the pork. Further exploration revealed what was left of the bread and three apples.

Kratos returned to the campsite in silence, busying himself starting a fire.

Anna scarcely noticed him as she scanned the surrounding foliage, finally finding what she was searching for. Leaving Kratos to tend to the fire she set to work slicing the apples and assembling packets to set in the flames. She spread out two large leaves, placing a piece of the pork and apples on each, then she carefully wrapped the leaves around the meal tying them securely with a bit of twine.

By the time she had finished the fire was hungrily crackling at the kindling Kratos fed it, the flames glowing white with the heat they exuded. Anna carried the packets towards the sound of water nearby, dousing them in icy water before hurrying with them back to the flames. Kratos had positioned a largish, mostly flat stone in the fire, onto which Anna dropped the dripping packets of pork and apples. Within moments the air was filled with the hissing of popping fat and the sweet smell of sizzling apples.

Anna stared at the packets sleepily, stifling the urge to yawn. “How much progress do you think we’ve made?”

Kratos’ eyes’ remained on the fire as he spoke. “About what I expected us to. I do not believe we have in any way altered the time it will take us to reach the mausoleum.”

Anna blinked up at him drowsily. “Still another two days then?”

“Something like that.”

It seemed to Anna that the food would never finish cooking. She had poked at the packets continuously with a stick until Kratos had remarked that there would be nothing left to eat if she continued to batter them. Anna had glared sleepily at him, too tired to think of an appropriate retort.

When at last the food was ready Kratos carefully removed the packets from the flames with the tip of his sword. He placed one steaming, blackened packet before Anna and the other before himself. Anna foolishly attempted to remove the wrapping from her food, only to burn her hand as the steam escaped. She sat back with a small noise of alarm, sucking on her hand.

“Are you injured?” Kratos looked up at her, the note of concern in his voice making Anna irritated.

“Of course not!” she growled. “It was stupid really. I’m fine.”

Still he moved closer, taking her hand and examining it, seemingly unaware or unconcerned about her tone of voice. Anna snatched her hand back, glaring at him as he used a small knife to cut the twine from her packet of pork, using the blade to manipulate the leave wrapping around it.

Without a word he returned to the other side of the fire, picking at his own meal as Anna devoured hers. Once her belly was full she found that she extremely exhausted, more than she had previously realized. She stretched out on her side, cushioning her head on her arm and staring into the fire.

Through the maddening dance of the flames she could make out Kratos. He was sitting with his back to the trunk of a tree, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. His face was impassive as he stared into the fire and Anna found herself wondering what he was thinking. She realized then that she did not know much about this man at all, a fact that made her somewhat sad.

All this time she had only been thinking about herself and her troubles, but what about him? Did he have a family somewhere, brothers and sisters maybe, who depended on him? Or perhaps a young wife….

No, Anna narrowed her eyes at the thought. What young wife would betroth herself to a mercenary? She would have to be quite desperate. And probably very ugly.

With these uncharitable thoughts in her mind Anna closed her eyes, envisioning the most horrid bride for Kratos. She was quite unaware when she finally drifted off to sleep, but came awake with a shock.

Cold steel pricked at her throat and a gruff voice hissed at her. “Not a sound lovely, or we kill your friend.”

Anna stared across the dying embers of the fire to see Kratos slumped forward, seemingly asleep. As she watched two men crept up on him, one easing his sword away while the other brought the hilt of his own down on the back of the mercenary’s head. Anna screamed and a burst of pain shot through her head, her vision fading to black.