Times In Valentia

1: Meeting You

(Before the Prologue of Echoes)

A/N: A little story on how they met before the prologue.

A boy with hair matching the greenery of trees walked up to his grandfather. When he was about to hug him he suddenly paused when he saw something moving behind his grandfather. With his curiosity piqued, he slowly began to walk to the backside of his grandfather, only to let the strange thing move in the opposite direction of the boy. Whatever it was had an ebony cloak draped over them from head to toe and a golden dagger strapped on the left side of the waist. Before the game could continue, the grandfather took one of their hands and briefly separated them.

"Grandpapa, who is this?" The boy asked, his curiosity expanding.

"Alm, this is Celica. She will be living with us for a while. I hope you treat her well."

At first, the boy pondered for a bit. She did look quite suspicious with the cloak on and the golden dagger did seem intimidating to him. Her clothes were tattered as well, somehow blackened near the edges of her dress and dowsed in water, sweat beading down from her face, and no shoes present on her feet. But he quickly brushed those thoughts out of his mind, as it was quite rude to judge someone based on appearance. He extended his arm to her, hoping her to reply with a handshake.

"Well, my name is Alm. It's nice to meet you!" He smiled.

But she didn't shake his hand. The expression on her face was a mixture of melancholy and emptiness. Her sight was fixated to the ground, never meeting Alm's gaze or his face. She merely stood there in place. But slowly she mumbled something: "Conrad...."

Mycen looked at her solemnly for a brief moment.

"Um, is something wrong?" Alm asked, reaching his hand to her. Celica immediately slapped the hand back, making Alm retract his arm in pain as he held his hand.

"Don't touch me you clod!"

Celica began to whimper and cried near Mycen.

"It's going to take time until she opens up so don't worry about it. She is just going through something at the moment." Mycen reassured.

And boy it sure did.

As days passed by, her attitude and mood slightly improved due to Alm's assistance. The callings of "boor" and "clod" decreased significantly, making the boy quite happy. With every flower picked for her, a miniscule smile grew on her face. With every walk, she stared with awe at nature's beauty in the woods. With every story he said, she would listen no matter how tired she was at night. She has became quite friendly with the other villagers, especially with the children around her age. Her smile was endearing and kind, giving off a feeling of happiness and joy.

As they were on their usual stroll in the woods, a simple smile formed on her face as she looked at the cerulean sky.

"Thank you, Alm."

Thank you guys for reading this! Please vote or comment if you guys enjoyed. Credit to MMHunter for her feedback on my writing before posting this. This is something that I'll be doing from now one as I am OBSESSED with Shadows of Valentia. I finally beat Duma and Act 5 so post-game here I come!!!