A Thousand Needles is directly correlated with Golden Sunrise and was meant to serve as an explanation of some goings on behind the scenes as well as introduce a number of characters to the Destinia Saga. Of course, I also wanted to write about Lloyd and Sheena after the plot of Tales of Symphonia, because their romantic potential was just way too adorable to me and I found it much more endearing and charmingly realistic than Lloyd and Collette.

The two were tasked with meeting up with a small band of warriors from Weyward (The Golden Sun world) and helping them rescue a girl named Kagome who has been kidnapped by Metal Mario. Kagome is a very special girl whose body is filled with power. Metal Mario has been tasked with taking Kagome back to a military research base so that the energy her body produces can be used as fuel for a highly destructive weapon. Lloyd and Sheena are supposed to rescue so as to prevent not only this from occurring, but also to ask for her aid in stopping Derris-Kharlan from colliding with Weyward.

What I planned on transpiring after the point I got to…well, much of it is forgotten, but the group ends up stranded on Hylia (the Legend of Zelda planet) and was supposed to find a means of escape. I honestly don't remember what that means of escape WAS, however. In the end, they were going to catch up to Metal Mario and aid the strange demon-creature InuYasha (who, for those who missed it, had, in fact, teamed up with the Sailor Senshi) in saving Kagome.

To be fair, this was the least-developed plot of all of my Winds of Fate stories as far as the grand scheme is concerned. But that tends to happen when you base a story primarily off of a romance and then work things around that.

As for the meaning of the title…

"It's a promise," Sheena vowed to him, not quite in the same realm of thought as he was at the moment. She crossed her arms over her chest as her tone got feisty and even had a pinch of suspicion to it. "If you don't keep it, I'm going to invoke the tradition of making a liar swallow a thousand needles." The end of her sentence was spiced with threat.

Lloyd was brought back to this sentimental moment and jumped to his feet, caught off guard by her words. "Whoa," he moaned with friendly fear. "Okay, okay, I promise," he assured her, holding his hands out defensively.

At one point near the end of the story, Lloyd was going to break his promise and leave Sheen behind in a safe place to protect her, in which she would become quite annoyed with him for breaking their promise and find a way to follow him, anyway, only to get herself into more danger than she would have otherwise. Naturally.

Thanks for anyone who took some time to read this. Sorry I never got to finish it.

And that, as they say, is that.

D3stinySm4sher

aka Eddy Fettig

Reviews Editor of Zentendo