The Story Begins

It was not fun being part of Tales of Symphonia, I figured that out almost immediately. One minute I was sitting in my basement, turning on my Wii, the next I was waking up in a sun-dappled glade, with no idea how I had gotten there.

I sat up looking around, and realized I had no idea where I was. I stood, looking down. I still had on the pink sweats I'd been wearing at home. I looked around me soaking in my surroundings, mostly trees and plants. It didn't seem dangerous, at least not right then. I had a weird sense of deja vu, like I'd been here before, yet I knew I hadn't.

The bushes behind me rustled and I turned to find myself face to face with a bear. Not a normal bear, it seemed as though it was different from most bears. And then it hit me, why I recognized this place. I was in the game, in Tales of Symphonia, and I was going to die.

I screamed, as loud and high pitched as I could. The creature backed off and roared slashing at me with it's claws. I jumped back and it didn't touch my skin, but it tore my sweats to shreds. I fell, still screaming, when a voice floated out of the woods behind me.

"Demon fang!" I felt something white hot fly past me, only a hairbreadth from my body, and slam into the creature. A figure jumped out of the bushes, and all I saw was a flash of red before the monster fell down, dead.

"Are you okay?" the boy with messy brown hair asked me, "I heard you scream and came as fast as I could. It didn't hurt you did it? I'm sorry, monsters have been popping up more frequently lately, and I'm the only one who travels through it, so I didn't tell any one so..." He turned toward me and stopped. He turned right back around and pulled off his jacket and tossed it to me.

"What's this for?" I asked him, picking it up, "I'm not cold or anything."

"Your c-c-clothes," he managed to stammer before I realized what he meant.

I blushed bright red, and quickly pulled on the jacket. It was long on me, the boy was tall, but I was glad for it. The only pieces of clothing that had escaped the bears claws were my bra and underwear. I stood, shaking the too long sleeves back to free my hands.

"Um..." I let my voice trail off, as he turned around, "What's your name?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh! I'm Lloyd," he said as he looked at me, "Let's go to my place for now, you need some new clothes anyway. And whats your name, so I can talk to you on the way there."

"I'm Abigail," I told him, "but my friends call me Abbi."

"Abbi huh?" Lloyd said. Then he smiled and gestured at the path, "We need to get moving, my house is right over that hill."

I followed him over the hill and watched as the house came into view. It was made of wood, and there was a small stream running across the path that led toward the house. It had two stories and a wraparound balcony, that had a ramp that led to the roof of the stable. Lloyd walked toward the house and I hurriedly followed him. He signaled for me to stop at the door.

"Wait here," he said, "I'm going to tell my dad what happened and then I'll come get you, alright?" I nodded, simply grateful to be out of the forest.

He entered the house, and after some conversation, there was a shout, a crash, and the door flew open. I found myself staring at a red haired dwarf who grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house.

"Lloyd you fool boy," the dwarf shouted, "How could you leave her standing outside with nothing but your jacket on?"

"I wanted to warn you," Lloyd's voice came from the other side of the room, where it looked like something had cashed into a workbench. He sat up rubbing the back of his head, "I didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"Well she didn't have to wait that long," the dwarf told Lloyd, "You just had to explain, but you kept stuttering and such. Hello young lady, I'm Lloyd's father Dirk."

"Thank you sir," I said, "I'm Abbi, and I am really cold."

"See boy, she's cold," Dirk told his son, "Run to the village and see if the Professor or someone has something she can wear."

"Alright Dad," Lloyd said jumping up, "Be right back."

As he walked out Dirk gave me some towels, and pointed toward to the back of the house.

"There's a small hot spring out back," he informed me, "Why don't you go and bathe, while we wait for Lloyd?"

"I think I will," I told him, "and thank you."

I walked out to the spring and took off what was left of my clothes. As I lowered myself into the spring I relaxed, and started to wash. When I was done and had started to climb out, I lost my footing and fell backwards into the spring. My head cracked against the bottom of the spring, and I lost consciousness.

I awoke sometime later, with a boy, a dwarf, and a tall elegant woman hovering over me. I went to sit up, but found that my head was aching to much to do so. I laid back on the pillows, and looked at the three people sitting next to the bed.

"Abbi! Are you okay?" the boy seemed concerned.

"Who are you?" I asked, "And more importantly who am I?"