Chapter 1: Two sides of a coin

"Chrom! On your left!" The blue haired prince quickly swung his falchion to 9 o' clock. He fell one measly bandit, while the others stormed the castle wall, They were pouring in like a flood of the undead. trying to get to the far back center, where the queen of Ylisse was held, safely; where Chrom and I were guarding. I had sent Frederick and and Ricken to the east side, and Cain and Abel.. no... Stahl and Sully, sorry, to the west side, and Maribelle with lissa to patrol the halls looking for injured guards men. Sumia was down a close hallway to the left, and marth... or.. thats what I called her.. was down the right hallway. After the bandit fell, it was silence. Just me and Chrom, standing side by side, his sword drawn and my thunder spread open. The main entrance to The Queen's bedroom was about 10 feet behind us. "...How do you think Fredrick and Ricken are holding up?"

He replied with more confidence than I thought he would, "Robin, you should know by now... Frederick won't die too easily, especially if he's protecting Ricke-"

"Shut up!"

He paused for a moment, "What?"

"... Do you hear that?" The sound of small metal pins kinlking agaisnt other, more dense metal echoed from behind us. Like leaves on the wind, we pivited our bodies around, to find an orange haired thief picking the lock to the Queen's den. I waved my hand over my open lexicon, filling my hand with electric magic, "Stop... right... there.. " I saw him flinch, just at the fact that he was caught. He took his hand off of his lock pick, and turned around to face us. He wore a black headband, which was visible against his pumpkin coloured hair. He was wearing a tight black suit, and on it were a few small candies. I raised my hand that was imbued with magic at him. He put both of his hand in the air, admitting defeat. I was about to unleash my full force upon him, until I heard him speak up,

"Hey... don't attack me... I didn't have a choice! I had to come to this raid or I would have been fired!.. Or worse... Just let me go.. and you'll never hear from me again..."

Chrom interrupted his deal, "Quit your whining. How about this... Join our fight.. and be safe from the other bandits and thieves... Refuse, and Robin will have to turn you into a stain on the wall." He smirked, glancing over at me, ready to fill the bandits with 100+ volts of electricity. The thief, being between a rock and a hard place, nodded softly. "Good.. I'm glad we see eye to eye on this... What is your name, thief?"

He quickly responded, "... My name is Gaius, pleased to meet you, Prince Chrom."

"I hope you wont steal my coin bag later.. don't make me regret this."

"Don't leave it out then... anyways... where should I go first...Hey, kid!" Gaius was trying to get my attention, to no avail. My focus was drawn to a large figure walking toward us. It was Frederick, riding horse back, holding an incapacitated Ricken in his arms. Maribelle wasn't too far behind, holding Lissa.

"Sire, There is an unknown man headed this way," he looked pretty beat up, "He... nearly killed Ricken and Lissa. "

Chrom closed his eyes and nodded his head, "I see. Robin, what do you think we should do?"

My eyes scanned the halls, looking for some kind of way to defeat who ever this was, "... Gaius.. follow me."

"What ever you say, cupcake." He retreated from the door he was pressed up against and proceeded to pull a sucker out of small bag on his waist, unwrapped it, put it in his mouth, and followed me as ordered.

After a few minutes of trekking the halls of the castle, we finally come upon a tall dark figure. He emanated a dark purple aura.

"Your two friends have fallen, and you're gonna try to stop me with him?"

Another voice shouts out of the darkness, "No... He's not." I felt another presence behind me, but I did not dare not take my eyes off of the sinister man. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw sully and stall come from either side of the hall, effectively surrounding him.

The man scoffed, "I have no time for you... you are only delaying the inevitable. May we meet again... Robin.." Him saying my name shot a chill down my spine. Soon after, he shrouded himself in darkness, and vanished, in the blink of an eye. I hesitantly sheathed my sword. I only got to enjoy a few moments of silence before the calm was broken once more. The figure that had spoken up earlier, pounced on me, forcing me to the ground, hitting my head. I had closed my eyes on impact, as a reaction to the sudden change in velocity. I felt my body held down by a small , but substantial weight. I opened my eyes to see a woman straddling me. She had my arms pinned down above my head, and her body sat on my stomach, stopping me from getting any good leverage to get out of her hold. She looked different than Sumia or Maribelle. she had slight fur around her collar bone, and she had big, bunny-like ears, that were wrapped in her well kept shoulder length hair.

"You smell strange, man-spawn."

"S-strange? What are you talking about?" She reached her face down to my neck and started talking small quick sniffs at my neck. A slight blush covered my face.

"May I ask your name?"

"Panne." She said without any hesitation.

"Would you mind, uh... getting off of me.. please?"

As fast as she got on, she hopped back off of me, leaving me to brush myself off. Before I could introduce myself to Panne properly, Chrom bursted into the room,

"Marth is gone... she left when we had maribelle heal Ricken and Lissa..."

"So.. we lost a comrade... but gained two.. I feel that that's a positive outcome. So.. Panne.. will you fight with us?.. I menan.. you didn't attack me... so.. what do you say?"

She didn't look amused, "I will join you, but not for your cause... I will only join you for the protection... I can't afford to be outside anymore." A bit confused by her answer, but glad none the less. After a quick status check with the Queen, we headed off to Fort Ferox, our makeshift home for the remaining portion of the war. I saw Gaius head off with the other group members, leaving me to show Panne a route to the fort alone.

Whilst we walked along a dirt path to the fort, a few questions about the new soldier kept creeping into my head. While many of them came naturally with meeting a new person, but of course, with every new person, there are a few special questions as well. One of them that kept ramming it self into my brain was...Why did she jump on me like that? When... when that man fled, she hopped on me. Why? It seemed to eat at me like a tick on a poor dog. We walked side by side down the path, both of us looking straight ahead. Every now and again, I would turn my head to look at her, stealing a quick glance from her every now and again. Usually, this path felt like nothing when I walked it alone before, but with her, it felt like it took ages. I almost jumped when I heard her make an audible grunt of acknowledgement.

"Hm.." Hesitant to respond, I gently said,

"What?'

"I've never been around a man-kin who was able to shut their mouth for more than ten minutes. It's quite impressive.

"I.. uh.. thank you?" The next few minutes were filled with the all too familiar silence. After a couple more minutes of silence, I noticed something about the way her ears looked, I knew that they were longer than normal human ears, but, I just noticed what kind of animal she looked like. A bunny! Or... more specifically a lop. You know, the kind of bunnies where their ears flop down?

"I... like your ears..." The reason why I said that will to this day be unknown.

".. What did you say man-kin?"

Blush splattered my face, "Oh I uh... I said.. I .. Liked your ears." I said gently, as to try my hardest to not offend the girl. She smiled lightly,

"Thank you man-kin... I've also never met one so polite as you." He figure intrigued me. She was clearly not beast, but not what I would call a "human" with the way her ears were shaped, and the way she had thick patches of fur around her neck and wrapping around neither region.

"Panne, what.. are you?" I immediately had regret for those words, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean- "

"Taguel" She stopped walking, so I did the same,

"W-what?"

"We.. or.. I.. am the last of a race called the Taguel. We were a strong, honorable people. We thrived in the thousands. But.. then-" While listening to her talk, my eyes saw past her, noticing a man. Let me rephrase that; I noticed a Risen man. Maybe a fighter; he dragged a hand axe behind him. I ran my fingers along my coat, until I found my book of thunder. "... man came.. and found us."

"I'm sorry panne.. I .. wish I could've.. done something to help." Trying to focus on both the emotionally hurting Taguel, and the bloodthirsty undead warrior. "Panne?"

Her voice was either on the edge of tears or rage, "Yes?"

"Do you know hot to fight?" She nodded, reaching into one of her small packs on her hips, pulling out a small, purple crystal. "What's that?" She turned around and saw the zombie-like threat, and smiled.

"You'll see." She squeezed the crystal tightly in her hand, making a satisfying cushing noise. Before I could ask anything else, she planted her hands on the ground, sending her rear end skyward. Her back arched as a bright glow enveloped her, forcing me to shield my eyes from it. When I looked back, Panne was gone. And in her place was an enormous rabbit. My mouth slightly parted as I realized that it was Panne. I could almost feel the pent up anger in the rabbit's heart. In a few seconds, Panne darted off to her target.

5

Her feet and hand were synchronized, giving her a powerful running position.

4

The dead man began to lift his axe, the signature, unnatural purple gass oozing from his mouth.

3

I almost felt bad for him. He had no idea what he was in for.

2

And... to be honest.. i didn't either

1

Goodnight, you bastard

0

Feet away from the Risen, she dug her front feet into the ground, acting as a pivot. Using all of her momentum, she swung her thick, strong legs around, kicking the man square in the chest, knocking him over. In a few more seconds, he evaporated into more purple mist. Smiling, I began walking toward her. In the corner of my eyes, I saw a man with blue hair. My worry left my body. This was where the two paths crossed. As I began to wave my arms to get the attention of Chrom, I heard a loud painful grunt. To my horror, Panne was struck with a direct wind blast from a nearby mage.

"Panne!" I ran over to her. Being hit, she reverted back to her normal form. The crystal must have worn off. Before I could do anything to help the unconscious girl, my vision was filled with red flames, as the mage shot a large blast of elfire, knocking me to the ground. Darkness began to shroud my vision. A blue haired lord, running bravely.. or foolishly into a large group of mages was the last thing I could recall before the darkness swallowed me.