(7/5) = I was getting really tired of the A/N that I had here, so I'm pUTTING A NEW ONE YEAH

For any new people here, I just want to say: Hi! Thanks for taking the time to look at my fic. This is a story that I started a few years ago, but I'm really only just starting to get anywhere with it. Feel free to read, and let me know if you like it. Or don't - doesn't matter to me! I'm still trying to get the hang of updating often, so try to bear with me if you stick with me through this.

And with that, I'll let you get on with the reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia. It belongs to Namco Bandai. Or whatever the hell made this game.

Chapter 1: I Use the Chosen as a Landing Cushion

"Be sure to do some laundry before I get home."

"Got it, Dad. Anything else?"

"Yeah, vacuum the living room, too. And the couches."

"Amber did that yesterday, didn't she? Why do I have to do it again?"

"Because it rained last night and the dogs have probably been tracking mud everywhere. It won't take you more than twenty minutes - just do what I told you, alright?"

"Fiiiiiine."

"Good. Don't forget. I'll see you when I get home."

"'Kaaaaay. Bye, Dad."

Beep.

I sigh as the screen on my cell phone flashes, signaling the call has ended. My dad is so friggin' weird when it comes to cleaning the carpet. I mean...yes, it does get dirty a lot, but really? We don't need to vacuum it every other day. It just wastes electricity.

After a moment, I shrug to myself, resigned. I then begin fiddling around with the hidden pocket on my hoodie for a second, before dropping my phone back with my MP3 player in the pocket. I like that this hoodie has this thing - it's convenient, and...it's also the only way I can keep from losing stuff when I'm wearing this particular hoodie. They just...don't seem to stay in the normal pockets.

I then proceed to have a staring contest with the living room carpet…which now that I'm looking at it, I see that it is actually very dirty. And covered in mud balls and paw prints, just like Dad said. God dammit, I hate it when it rains here – the grass hasn't completely grown back yet from winter, so every time it rains it's basically a mud pit out in the backyard. And since our dogs are running around out there twenty-four seven, they track in literally everything. It makes the carpets look like they've been run over by…um….dirty, hairy things.

...Wow, that's the best I can come up with? Dirty, hairy things? Way to go Cassie. You suuuuuck.

…Y'know what? Forget Dad, I really don't feel like vacuuming right now. Nobody's coming home yet, anyways, so why should I do it right now? Amber's at her cleaning job, Mom's in Arkansas visiting relatives, Dad's at work, and Stormie's still at school doing...something (tutoring?). I can just do it later...or at least a half-hour from now.

Right now, I kind of feel like playing a game. Don't know what kind, but I want it to beeee...something on the GameCube. Yes.

I pull myself up from the couch, placing my dachshund Tappie, who was lying on my lap, back onto my previously occupied spot. Then I turn on my heel and make my way to the small hallway attached to the living room, which also leads to my bedroom, where the GameCube awaits me.

I stretch as I walk down the hallway, my sock covered feet creaking on the old floorboards. Wood floors are nice and all, but it makes it almost impossible to be sneaky in this house, I swear. To me, that's a problem, because I tend to stay up really, really late and the creaking boards tend to give me away in the middle of the night.

Stupid floor…

When I make it to my bedroom, I make an immediate left, heading for the small TV, and with it, the stack of Gamecube games. I clear some of Stormie's stuff away from the front of the TV (translation: throw all of it on her bed), before going through the medium sized pile accumulated on the dresser in search of a game to play.

H'okay, let's see here…how about Wind Waker? Mmh, probably not. I don't really feel like sailing around on an ocean.

Paper Mario?…Naaah, not in the mood.

What about Resident Evil 4? Eugh, on second thought, that would be a big HELL no. I can never get past that freakin' claw guy in that one castle area.

...Ugh, this is ridiculous. I'm seriously tempted to steal the PS2 out of Amber's room and play one of those games. Either that or drag the Wii up here so I can play Animal Parade. I'm not sure how long farming would hold my attention, but it's better than nothing.

I sigh, promptly sitting then falling onto my back on the spare mattress, which we keep in the middle of the floor. I spend the next seconds staring at the ceiling light, probably damaging my poor eyesight even more before I turn my gaze away from it with a sigh.

…Wait, hang on a sec. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the corner of a game case shoved under some stuff underneath Stormie's bed. How the hell did that get there?

Frowning slightly, I reach over and dig it out from all the stuff crammed under her bed, then hold it up to my face to see what it is.

Oh, hey! Tales of Symphonia…haven't played that in a while. I sit up now, staring at the case as I try to remember when exactly I last played this game. If I remember correctly, the last time I played was with Stormie, and she was Genis through most of it. We got stuck at the Temple of Lightning and then didn't play it again. That place is a total bitch.

…Well, there's nothing else to do. I guess I can start a new game.

Sighing again, I pop the case open as I stand up, pulling out the first disc of the game. I have to remove Licorice McButton from the top of the Gamecube, sliding the disc onto my finger for a minute while I do so, before actually popping open the console top.

Surprisingly, there wasn't even a game in there in the first place, so I just go ahead and pop in the game disc, close the lid, and turn on the power button.

As I turn on the TV, my stomach suddenly decides to tell me that it wants food…rather noisily, I might add. It's probably because I skipped lunch today. I knew I shouldn't have, even if I didn't have any money. I always regret it when I do, which is rarely, because my stomach decides to try and eat itself!

…Then again, the school food is really gross, but that's beside the point!

So, while the game loads, I head towards the kitchen to get myself a little snack. Because those make everything better.

I have to hang with my two doofus dogs, Sophie and Maya, first, because both of them are waiting for me in the living room when I come out. When I finally get there, the puppies crowding around my legs, I immediately move to open the pantry door and grab myself two Fiber One Brownies. Now, usually I don't eat them, but my mom just picked up the Chocolate Chip kind, which...is my favorite.

Sooooo...omnomnom.

As I devour one of my brownies (mmmm…), I walk back towards my room, ignoring the dogs walking all over my feet and/or hopping on me (Maya's claws make that a bit difficult). I can't hear the intro for the game yet, so it must still be loading. Or maybe it just failed to do so. That first disc hasn't really worked right since I loaned it to my cousin a few years ago.

And just as I thought, when I walk into the room, stuffing the last of my brownies in my mouth, I see that yes, the game has once again failed to load, and is now showing a blank grey screen. Damned thing.

"Stupid Gamecube." I growl, looking down at the silver box. I try whacking and shaking it a few times, but to my dismay, it does nothing to fix the screen - only causes a bit of static to appear. Damn, that usually works…

Oh well…I guess I should just turn it off and find something else to do. Maybe I'll dig out Magical Melody and play that for a bit.

Sighing, I reach to turn off the game console-

And cry out when I'm suddenly blinded by a flash of light. Instinctively, I fling my arms in front of my face to cover my eyes. I'm suddenly filled with a feeling of weightlessness, causing my stomach to leap up into my throat, as well as the sensation of being tossed around. After a few confusing seconds, I inexplicably hear rushing air around me. Confused, I open my eyes lightly, only to be greeted by a confusing, dizzying rush of blue and white in front of me.

The hell is up with…

Oh my fuck, I'm falling.

I don't have the sense to try and figure out why I'm suddenly falling from the sky, when I was just standing in my room, due to the fact that I am now screaming and flailing like a dying fish. Also, there's the fact that I'm pretty sure that I'm going to diE HOLY FUCKING GOD-

CRCK!

What remains of my though process at that moment is pretty much shattered when my back collides with something hard. All the wind gets knocked out of me, cutting off my screaming.

The next thing I know, there's pain flowing all throughout my body as I violently fall and tumble through…what I think is a tree. Or several trees. I can just barely register some broken branches flying past me as I'm thrown around, so that's what I'm going with.

All of a sudden, I come to an abrupt, painful stop from all my falling. It takes me a second to realize that I've become caught on a large branch, thanks to my hoodie.

Actually, it...takes me a second to figure anything out, because all that's going through my head right now is "HOLY OOOOOOOOOWOWOW". Because pain. A lot of pain.

Groaning a few choice profanities, I open my eyes slightly to see a blurred landscape...a really high blurred landscape. Holy crap, I'm up high. It makes my head spin just looking at it. And I suddenly feel like I'm about to barf up those brownies I just ate.

I shake my head slightly to clear the sudden vertigo, blindly flinging my arms around the nearest branch before I open my eyes again. My legs stay dangling in the air, which doesn't comfort me at all.

Um, okay...everything's still all blurry. Why? Why is everything blurry? I carefully take one hand up off the branch to try rubbing my eyes, going under my glasses – oh. Okay. They aren't there.

Welp. That would explain it.

I groan, dropping my hand back around the branch. Okay...okay, what the fuck just happened, exactly? Why did I just get dropped into a bunch of trees? Actually, better question - why was I dropped into the fucking air? I just...I am so confused right now. And maybe slightly panicking. That's not good at all.

Okay, okay, calm down. Calm doooooown, freaking out doesn't solve anything. Just try and think. Thiiiiiiink...thinkthinkthinkthINK-

"…what's the temple like?"

The sudden voice manages to snap me out of my current thought process and panic. I look toward the ground, in the direction of the voice, but my view is blocked by several branches.

Is there someone walking this way?

"We've never been inside, so it's kind of exciting!"

"Hmm, well, it's sort of dark because not much sunlight makes it through…"

"That's not quite what I was expecting…"

Oh, okay, a few people are coming. Sounds like about three of them. Maybe I should try getting their attention. I strain to try and see them, gripping my handhold tighter, but the branches blocking my view make it next to impossible, even with my shoddy eyesight.

"…But, then again, I've never been to the inner part, either."

"Hmmm…I can't wait to get inside!"

"If only you could keep up this enthusiasm the entire time…"

It sounds like they're right below me now…Ugh, come on, why can't I see them?!

CRRK-

I feel my stomach lurch when the branch I'm currently gripping suddenly gives way, and I immediately begin to plummet. I manage to make a small yelp as I'm once again falling through the air, crashing and tumbling wildly through the remaining tree branches. I'm abruptly met with clear air for two seconds, before I crash into something else with a fleshy sounding thud.

"GHOOF!"

"Agh!"

Silence follows my sudden landing. Of course, I don't really notice, as I'm…currently trying to remember how to breathe. Holy mother of fuck, I landed hard. It feels like...literally all the air got knocked out of me just now. Luckily, I...I think I landed on something soft, so I don't think I'm in bad shape. I hope.

Wait…what exactly did I land on? I could have sworn that it made a noise…

Slowly, I open my eyes, which I had apparently closed when I landed. It takes me a second to see well enough to make out certain objects, due to my glasses being missing. When it does clear (somewhat…) I find out that I'm now lying on my back. Which is sort of...confusing to me, because I'm pretty sure I fell face first.

Well, the first thing that I see is the sky, surrounded on two sides by tree branches. Of course it would be, seeing as I just fell through, like, twenty of them. When I arch my head back slightly, I see…some oddly colored blurs. I'm guessing that they were some of the people that were talking earlier. One of them is a big blob of red, while the other is a smaller blue blob. That strikes me as pretty odd, for some reason.

…Wait. Wasn't there a third person with them…?

I feel something shift underneath me, snapping me out of my sudden thought.

"Ow…"

…Ooooooh shit.

Slowly, I turn my head to the left, in the direction of the voice. Blonde hair, lighter in tone than my own, dominates my vision, and as I watch, it shifts to reveal a pair of blue eyes, staring at me.

Holy shit, I just landed on someone.

I make a noise akin to a loud 'HURK', and quickly roll off the poor person I just used as a cushion. As I do that, I realize that I landed right on their front, so I was on top of them with my head right next to theirs. Holy crap, awkward. And now I just feel the overwhelming urge to apologize profusely to them.

Of course, that urge is buried over the sudden intense urge to scream several profanities at the SHARP, THROBBING PAIN that is now flowing through me. Probably from my sudden movement just now.

I end up on my stomach, curled in a ball and uttering a long stream of muffled curse words through gritted teeth, as I hear running feet come in my direction. I'm pretty sure they belong to that poor person's companions, coming to see if they're okay. I can barely make out what they're saying over my swear-a-thon, though.

"Colette, are you okay?!" Okay, that one sounded like a dude. That's one of the companions, I believe.

"Y-yes, I think so." And that must be the person that I landed on, a girl by the sound of it. That just makes things worse! I landed on some poor girl…

…Wait a minute.

Colette?

I bite my lip to stop anymore swears coming out, breathing hard through my nose, and slowly turn my head to the right, trying to peer through my long hair. I don't feel like uncurling myself to remove it from my face, so I'm just gonna try to look through it.

Through my very blurred and obscured vision, I see large red and white blurs dominating my vision. I can't make out who they are, but I can see one of the two companions, the red one, kneeling next to the girl, who is the white blob that I saw. She's sitting up now, and from what I can tell, she's holding her head.

I close my eyes again, and continue taking deep breaths so I don't end up cursing out loud again. I can't make them out, thanks to my stupid eyesight. Or it could be that my eyesight is even worse from that large impact I had. My head hurts a lot right now.

I flinch a bit when I feel a hand touch my upper back. "Um…are you okay?" Hm, I don't recognize that one. Must be the blue person from the group.

Slowly, I pull myself up from my ball until I'm supporting myself on my hands and knees. I'm still in a kind of ball, but not by much. My head spins when I open my eyes, peering down at my hands pressed into the dirt. I blink sharply, and then look towards the person next to me.

"-AGH!"

…If you don't know, that was me. I'm not one to scream randomly, believe me, but if you just saw what I did…well, you'd be freaked too.

The person next to me is close enough for me to see his look of surprise by my sudden outburst. Some of his silver-colored fringe covers his blue eyes, but I can still see them widen in shock. I take notice of his familiar blue outfit as he backs away slightly. Next to him, I see something that, even with my blurred vision, I register as a hammer-like object with a red ball attached.

I'm...staring at Genis Sage.

Genis Sage.

GENIS.

FRIGGIN'.

SAGE.

From Tales of Symphonia.

"Wh-what?" he stammers. I don't reply to that, as my brain is still trying to register the fact that I'm currently gawking at Genis Sage. WHO IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REAL.

I just about have a brain-snap when I remember the two behind me. Oh god, if Genis is here, then…

I turn around, and sure enough, the two others are still there, and I can practically feel their eyes on me. The red person- who I now realize is Lloyd Irving- is still kneeling next to the girl I landed on…who I now realize is Colette Brunel.

Which means…

I just landed on the Chosen of Sylvarant.

…Oh crap.

Okay, now that I've edited this chapter, I feel immensely better. :3

I will be editing the other chapters too, once I get the time, so be sure to look out for that.

Oh, by the way, Licorice McButton is one of my Gloomy bears. He guards my Gamecube when I'm not using it. XD

Next Time: Developing an intense hatred for trees.