A/N: Hello everyone~ I decided to start uploading this story while working on the other, get the creative juices flowing. It was something I had up on Quizilla when that was still a thing, but now it's been revamped a bit. Hope you enjoy the beginning.
Disclaimer: Nintendo owns Fire Emblem
Laughter follows Alita out of the tavern, cutting off only when the door slams behind her. Another attempt to find a boat, one she can take, one she can hitch a ride on, has come to a grinding halt. No one wanted to sell her one. No one wanted to charter one out to her, especially if it was just her. Apparently no one was willing to help her, and it was frustrating. She had been in this port for the past week and a half, dealing with beorc of all things. She despises them with a fierce passion, for what they did to her mother, for what they did to her, and for how her father abandoned her and her mother. The mere thought curls her lip in a snarl, which she hides behind the mask she pulls up.
Taking note of the sudden commotion, Alita spots several townsmen running toward the east side of town. They haven't been this riled up since she has been here. Curiosity getting the better of her, Alita silently follows. As she rounds the corner of one of the houses a larger group of townsmen are surrounding a figure. At first Alita believes it is just some form of public humiliation to one of their own. That is until she noticed the cat ears the victim was sporting. A laguz!
Immediately anger bubbles up in Alita. The injustice of it makes her seethe. They are people too, just with a disposition towards the animal kingdom. Clenching her fists she steps forward, intent on showing these humans what it's like to be treated as an inferior race. Before she can even get close to lay a hand on one of the townsmen, someone is already there. Alita blinks in surprise as a blue haired beorc helps the cat. But why does he help? She can't fathom the reason, all her life having learned that the beorc hate the laguz. Even the townspeople are surprised.
Before she can confront the man to try to understand what she just saw, soldiers swarm the town. Alita can count six of them from where she is hidden, but she knows there are more. There always is. Judging by the color and style of the armor some of the soldiers are wearing, she believe them to be from Daein. They must have been pursuing that beorc group... Alita turns away from the beginning fight, taking the opportunity to loot some of the houses.
All the items that she collects are useless to her, but she keeps them anyway to sell later on. When she goes to enter one of the houses she hasn't yet searched, she collides with someone coming out. Taking a stumbling step back to regain her balance, Alita looks at the offender. He has dark robes, a stange mark on his forehead and is holding a book. Her skin prickles with the realization of him being a magic user. He took one look before flipping his book open and blasting away. It ended up being wind magic, slowing Alita down just enough that she acquired serveral cuts before being able to dodge. Growling to herself she dodged the next attack, working her way closer to him. Grudgingly she admitted that he was pretty good, considering the other magic users she fought didn't last very long.
The skirmish had only been going on for a few minutes when Alita heard a far off order, recognizing the tide of the battle changing. Picking up her pace, Alita makes it harder for the magic user to keep up. His attacks missing her, hitting areas that she had already vacated by the time he fired. Suddenly appearing in front of him, Alita slashes upward with her knife. His reflexes are quicker than she thought, her knife opening a line across his face instead of splitting his head as he pulls back. Following her upward momentum she jumps and twists over him. In the process she has her other knife out, cutting his book in two. She smirks in triumph as she renders him defenseless, tucking one knife away.
The magic user gives Alita a long suffering look, a slow smirk forming across his lips. Alita frowns behind her mask as she watches him, warry of the sudden change in demeanor. He drops the pieces of the split book, it being useless to him now, then pulls another book from his robes. The book he pulls out is a reddish color, indicating it as Fire. A mage!
Alita knows when it's time to retreat, wisely doing so now by turning around and running. The fire attack roars after her, inciting a burst of speed from her when she feels the heat against her back. It scorches the earth at her heels, the flames licking at her then dying out. Alita keeps running, not daring to look back or slow down on the off chance that the mage decided to pursue.
Upon rounding the corner of another house, Alita winds up slamming into a wall of flesh. She realizes it's a horse as soon as it whinnies, rearing in alarm. The sudden motion knocks the rider off with an exclamation. Alita takes a step away from the horse only to have the wind knocked out of her as she is tackled to the ground and pinned, groaning when her head slaps the earth.
"Kieran...Why are you on the ground?" A voice calls from behind the knight that is pinning Alita to the ground. Kieran, never taking his eyes or grip from Alita, grunts out a reply. "What do you want Oscar? I'm merely stopping a thief is all." "Oh is that all?" Oscar hums. Alita scowls at Kieran, then glances over at the man called Oscar when she's able to see straight. She's able to discern that he is also a knight, if his armor and the horse he's on is anything to go by, hissing when Kieran yanks her up. He has her arms behind her back, cinching a rope around them to tie them there. "Yes! He stole my stuff and I intend to get it back!" Kieran drags Alita to his horse that hadn't wandered off.
Alita twists her wrists as she gets pulled along, testing the strength of the tie and judging how much room she has. Taking her chance, she turns into Kieran, breaking his grip on her arm and drops into a squat. Her leg is already extending, tripping him up on the rotation as she leans on her back, pulling her arms underneath her so they are now in front. Immediately Alita is on her feet and running, not giving Kieran or Oscar the chance to catch her again.
Having lost one of her knives from the run in with Kieran, Alita takes out another, sawing at the rope between her wrists as she runs. She hears a shout from behind her accompanied with the clatter of hooves. She saws away quicker, knowing it's only a matter of the time before the horses catch up. Alita just managed to cut through the rope and tuck her knife away before she is picked up by the back of her neck. She twists and turns, growling when the grip doesn't weaken and loathing the fact that her laguz powers are non-existent.
"Mordecai, thank you. He was trying to get away from Kieran" the voice of Oscar explains.
"And what is a young one like you doing?" Mordecai directs softly towards Alita, still holding her up by the back of her neck. Alita refuses to answer, eyes narrowing in the direction she had planned to escape, teeth grinding to hear Kieran. "I say we take him to the Commander and let him deal with it."
Alita is carried off to an inn that is situated just outside the docking area. When they enter, she notices the mage and blue haired boy from before, as well as the laguz that he had saved. In addition to those three, there are two others that Alita recognizes as laguz. The first is a girl with orange tail and ears, the second is a man with very light blue hair, like that of ice just beginning to show color, draped over his shoulder. He has pointed ears, which is the only visible feature that marks him as a laguz. Alita senses it though, and is surprised once again when she is set carefully down, finding that Mordecail is a laguz as well. That's four of them among this group of beorc, causing Alita to question her beliefs, even if only slightly.
"There you all are. I've been wondering where you went" the blue haired beorc speaks towards the group that just arrived. "Who is this?" "He's a thief who tried to steal from me!" Kieran exclaims as he grabs Alita, dragging her to the center of the room. She bristles at his touch, snatching her arm away, crossing it in front of her as she speaks for the first time to defend herself. "I wasn't trying to steal anything from him. My pack is full. I was trying to run away from him." Alita snarls pointing at the mage, hating having to explain anything to the beorc.
The blue haired boy turn to the mage, eyebrow raised. "Soren, where you fighting this thief?" The mage, Soren, looks over at Alita and shrugs. "He was the one that destroyed my Wind" he admits. Alita suddenly has everyone's attention, returning it with a glare of her own as she takes note of possible escape routes.
Out of the blue, the Commander asks "Would you care to join our group? Your skills would be invaluable" Alita scoffs. "No. I only want a ship" comes her clipped reply, retreating into a frosty silence. "Well, you can come on our ship if you return what was stolen." Alita's eyes flash in fury as the beorc boy refuses to listen. "I already told you, I didn't steal anything from him!" She throws her pack on the table, it clunking in the middle of what the beorc had been planning. "Look for yourself."
Alita watches them and waits. They look at her bag, consider it, but no one bothers to touch it or open it. Alita scowls at them from behind her mask, stalking over to her pack and opens it, dumping the contents out. She takes the magic book, tossing it across the table at the mage, shoving the rest of it in the middle. Kieran comes forward, inspecting the items thoroughly to ensure nothing is his before backing away with a frown. The commander looks from the pile of equipment, money loss in Alita's eyes, to Alita.
"Consider it payment for my coming along" she bites out, stalking out of the inn.